PROVIDENCE — The Brown University Library and the John Carter Brown Library are among the 31 institutions partnering with the Library of Congress and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to launch the World Digital Library, the university announced on Friday.

The WDL is a Web site that features unique cultural materials and national treasures from libraries and archives around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints, photographs and other resources. The site was conceived in 2005 by U.S. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington as a way to promote cross-cultural awareness by telling the stories and highlighting the achievements of all countries and cultures. The WDL — at www.wdl.org/en — provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.

The collection includes the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in British North America. A copy in the collection of the John Carter Brown Library is 1 of 11 first-edition copies known to exist and one of only four perfect copies. Items from the John Carter Brown Library include the first illustrated edition of Christopher Columbus’ letter to the Spanish monarchy, the author’s edition of the first book printed in what is now the United States, Samuel de Champlain’s first book about New France, one of the first maps ever to identify the New World as “America,” and the only known edition, and second-oldest imprint, of a book printed in a Jesuit mission in Paraguay.

The WDL functions in seven languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish — and includes content in more than 40 languages. Items on the WDL may be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages.

Other examples of items that will be featured on the WDL include oracle bones and steles contributed by the National Library of China; Arabic scientific manuscripts from the National Library and Archives of Egypt; early photographs of Latin America from the National Library of Brazil; the Hyakumanto darani, a publication from the year 764 from the National Diet Library of Japan; the famous 13th-century “Devil’s Bible” from the National Library of Sweden; and works of Arabic, Persian and Turkish calligraphy from the collections of the Library of Congress.

Also, a watercolor from the American War of Independence by Jean Baptiste Antoine de Verger (1762-1851) shows one of the few known images of an African-American soldier dating from that time.

The WDL was developed by a team at the Library of Congress and supported by UNESCO. Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Other institutions contributing content and expertise to the WDL include national libraries and cultural and educational institutions in Brazil, Egypt, China, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Library of Congress, Brown University Library, John Carter Brown Library and Yale University Library are the only four North American institutions participating in this project.