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{{Update|date=December 2023}}
{{more refs|date=July 2022}}
{{short description|Online web directory}}
{{Infobox website
| name = The WWW Virtual Library
| logo = Tim Berners-Lee.jpg
| logo_size = 220px
| logo_alt = Tim Berners-Lee
| logo_caption = [[Tim Berners-Lee]], the founder of the Virtual Library
| caption = [[Tim Berners-Lee]], the founder of the Virtual Library
| screenshot =
| screenshot_size =
| screenshot_alt =
| collapsible = 
| collapsetext = 
| background = 
| type = 
| language = [[English language|English]]
| language_count =
| language_footnote =
| traded_as =
| founded = 1991
| dissolved =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| location = [[CERN]] (in 1991)
| location_city = [[Geneva]]
| location_country = [[Switzerland]]
| country_of_origin =
| locations =
| area_served = Worldwide
| owner = 
| creators = [[Tim Berners-Lee]]
| founder = [[Tim Berners-Lee]]
| editors = Arthur Secret, et al.
| key_people = [[Tim Berners-Lee]], Arthur Secret, Bertrand Ibrahim
| industry =
| services = [[Web directory]]
| international = 
| parent =
| divisions =
| subsidiaries = 
| url = {{official URL}}
| commercial = No
| registration = 
| num_users = 
| launch_date = 1991 
| current_status =
| native_clients =
| oclc = 
| footnotes =
}}
'''The World Wide Web Virtual Library''' ('''WWW VL''') was the first index of content on the [[World Wide Web]] and still operates as a directory of [[e-text]]s and information sources on the web.

==Overview==
The Virtual Library was started by [[Tim Berners-Lee]] creator of [[HTML]] and the [[World Wide Web]] itself, in 1991 at [[CERN]] in [[Geneva]].<ref name="searchenginehistory.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.searchenginehistory.com/ | title=History of Search Engines: From 1945 to Google Today | accessdate=2017-05-16 | work=Search Engine History | first=Aaron | last=Wall }}</ref> Unlike commercial index sites, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are experts. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "WWWVL", the "Virtual Library" or just "the VL".

The individual indexes, or ''virtual libraries'' live on hundreds of different servers around the world. A set of index pages linking these individual libraries is maintained at ''vlib.org'',<ref>{{cite web| url=http://vlib.org/ | title=The WWW Virtual Library | website=vlib.org | accessdate=29 July 2022 }}</ref> in [[Geneva]] only a few kilometres from where the VL began life. A mirror of this index is kept at [[East Anglia]] in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://vlib.org.uk/ | title=The WWW Virtual Library | website=vlib.org.uk | location=UK | accessdate=29 July 2022 }}</ref>

==History==
The Virtual Library was first conceived and run by [[Tim Berners-Lee]] in 1991, and later expanded, organised and managed for several years by Arthur Secret as the "virtual librarian",<ref>{{cite book| title=How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web | first1=James | last1=Gillies | first2=Robert | last2=Gillies | date=2000 | isbn=978-0192862075 | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | page=245 }}</ref> before it became a formally established [[Voluntary association|association]] with Gerard Manning as its Council's first chairman.<ref name="history">{{cite web| url=http://vlib.org/admin/history | work=The WWW Virtual Library | title=History of the Virtual Library | accessdate=29 July 2022 }}</ref> The late Bertrand Ibrahim was a key contributor to the pre-association phase of the Virtual Library's development and then served as its Secretary until his untimely death in 2001 at the age of 46. A brief history, with links to archived pages and screenshots, is maintained on the Vlib website.<ref name="history" />

The Virtual Library grew over the years. For example, there is the ''WWW-VL History Central Catalogue'',<ref>{{cite web| url=http://vlib.iue.it/history/ | title=WWW-VL History Central Catalogue | website=vlib.iue.it | accessdate=29 July 2022 }}</ref> which was launched on 21 September 1993 by Lynn H. Nelson at [[Kansas University]].{{fact|date=July 2022}} From April 2004, it was relocated at the [[European University Institute]], [[Florence]], [[Italy]], where a history of the catalogue is also available.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://vlib.iue.it/history/about/about.html | title=About the WWW-VL History Central Catalogue | work=WWW-VL History Central Catalogue | date=11 September 2000 | accessdate=29 July 2022 }}</ref> The [[Virtual Library museums pages]] (VLmp) were added by [[Jonathan Bowen]] to the Virtual Library to cover [[museum]]s in 1994.<ref name="karp99">{{cite journal| title=Setting root on the Internet: Establishing a network identity for the museum community | first=Cary | last=Karp | authorlink=Cary Karp | journal=[[Museum International]] | volume=51 | issue=4 | pages=8–13 | date=October–December 1999 | doi=10.1111/1468-0033.00223 | publisher=[[UNESCO]] }}</ref>

In 2005, the central WWW Virtual Library website (vlib.org) was taken over by a new member, Michael Chapman, leading to the demise of the project.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://vlib.iue.it/history/about/desctruction-vl.html | title=Documents for the History of the destruction of the WWW-VL old project at vlib.org/interarb.com.e | accessdate=17 Aug 2023 | archive-date=4 December 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204174953/http://vlib.iue.it/history/about/desctruction-vl.html | url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Access by any other party was denied after a change in password. The elected council, consisting of established maintainers of individual virtual libraries, was ignored, and a new council of non-maintainers with little or no association with the Virtual Library was unilaterally instated. The Virtual Library as a cohesive collective of knowledge websites maintained by experts rapidly waned.

While the Virtual Library as a cooperative of indexed sites, the first on the Web, has ceased to be, many individual virtual library sites continue to be important and valuable academic resources.

==See also==
* [[Virtual Library museums pages]] (VLmp), the VL entry on [[museum]]s

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1991 establishments in Switzerland]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1991]]
[[Category:Web directories]]
[[Category:Aggregation-based digital libraries]]
[[Category:Swiss digital libraries]]
[[Category:CERN]]
[[Category:Tim Berners-Lee]]

World Wide Web Virtual Library - Revision history

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