etscape Communications Corporation
to develop a new software called Netscape Navigator. In 1995, Microsoft
launched Internet Explorer as a competitor. Other browsers, like Opera
or Safari. This photo from Wikipedia shows Mosaic 3.0 for Windows.

February 1994 > The first library website

The first library website was the one created by the Helsinki City
Library in Finland, which went live in February 1994. From then on,
more and more traditional libraries had a website as a new "virtual"
window for their patrons and beyond. Patrons could check opening hours,
browse the online catalog, and surf on a broad selection of websites on
various topics. Libraries developed digital libraries alongside their
standard collections, for a large audience to be able to access their
specialized, old, local and regional collections, including images and
sound. Librarians could now fulfill two goals that used to be in
contradiction--preservation (on shelves) and communication (on the
internet). Library treasures went online, like Beowulf, the earliest
known narrative poem in English, dated circa 1000, or the original
Bible from Gutenberg, dated 1455, on the website of the British Library.

May 1994 > The Human-Languages Page

Created by Tyler Chambers in May 1994, the Human-Languages Page (H-LP)
was a comprehensive catalog of 1,800 language-related internet
resources in 100 languages. In September 1998, there were six subject
listings and two category listings. The six subject listings were:
languages and literature, schools and institutions, linguistics
resources, products and services, organizations, jobs and internships.
The two category listings were: dictionaries, and language lessons. In
spring 2001, the Human-Languages Page merged with the Languages
Catalog, a section of the WWW Virtual Library, to become
iLoveLanguages, In September 2003, iLoveLanguages provided an index of
2,000 linguistic resources in 100 languages.

1994 > Athena, a multilingual digital library

Athena was founded in 1994 by Pierre Perroud, a Swiss teacher, and
hosted on the website of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Athena
is a multilingual digital library specializing in philosophy, science,
literature, history and economics, either by digitizing documents or by
providing links to existing etexts. The Helvetia section has provided
documents about Switzerland. Geneva being the main city in
French-speaking Switzerland, Athena has also focused on p