John Van Oudenaren directs the World Digital Library (www.wdl.org), a collaborative initiative of the Library of Congress, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and libraries, archives, museums, and educational institutions from around the world. Previously he served as chief of the European Division at the Library of Congress and was the director of the Library’s Global Gateway international digital library collaborations.

Prior to joining the Library in 1996, he was a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and director of RAND's European office in Delft, the Netherlands. He has served on the Policy Planning Staff of the U. S. Department of State and has been a research associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He received his Ph. D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his A. B. in Germanic Languages and Literature from Princeton University. Dr. Van Oudenaren is the author of several books and numerous articles on European politics and international relations.