The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) began as a research project funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Microsoft Research and creates a digital library of outstanding children's books from all over the world (http://www. childrenslibrary.org). The project was introduced at an international celebration at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in November 2002. The focus of the collection is identifying materials that help children understand the world around them and the global society in which they live. The materials in the collection reflect similarities and differences in cultures, societies, interests, and lifestyles of peoples around the world. The immediate goal of the ICDL is to build an exemplary collection of 10,000 books in at least 100 languages and to make them freely available to children and scholars of children's literature around the world by 2008. This article takes a look at the unique characteristics of ICDL, how it manages copyright, and how it funds its operations.