World Heritage Memory Net (WHMNet) is a model
global digital library of cultural heritage collections related to the current 911 World Heritage Sites of 151 countries inscribed by the UNESCO
World Heritage Committee. (The following information has been extracted from the formal UNESCO/World Heritage Centre News Release, April 29 2011,
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/740.)
WHMNet is a fast, efficient, cutting-edge, online knowledge base which provides universal access to multilingual, multimedia and multiformat resources from museums, archives, libraries, and world bibliographic and Web resources, and includes photographs, videos, 3D videos, audio clips,
and documents. Currently the WHMNet Collection has more than 40,000 images, 27 video tours, many more video documentaries from available sources, and access to more than 250 incredible 3D panoramas courtesy of Tito Dupret of 1001wonders.org. Detailed descriptive information is presented in multilingual format in at least 6 UNESCO official languages and in many additional languages when available. In total, 103 world
languages are represented.
This global multi-year project is directed by Dr. Ching-chih Chen of the US nonprofit and tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, Global Connection and Collaboration (GlobalCC), and was supported until August 2010 by the US National Science Foundation (NSF)/International Digital Library Program
(IDLP) as a part of her Global Memory Net (GMNet), WHMNet is the result of a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2006 between the UNESCO World Heritage Center (WHC) and Simmons College,
Boston, Massachusetts, USA under the leadership of Dr. Ching-chih Chen,who was then information technology Professor at Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Since September 2010 to the present,WHMNet has been supported by GlobalCC until its completion.
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In leveraging the flexible system developed for Global Memory Net and enhanced for WHMNet, NTHU Memory Net for the Centennial Celebration of the National Tsing Hua University was able to be completed in the miraculous time (less than 5 months) with considerable rich multimedia information. Prof. Chen directed the project in collaboration with the NTHU Library. NTHU Memory Net was launched on April 23rd by President
L.J. Chen of NTHU. See: