This week will mark the launch of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), which will provide access to millions of books, publications, recordings and more.
The DPLA will function more as a portal to other libraries with digitized collections than as a single repository. Because many libraries are not linked up, the DPLA hopes to act as a hub that can improve Internet users’ ability to find and access materials available online. It also will fund efforts to digitize collections not yet converted, and link up with Europeana, the European version of a digital library.
According to the DPLA mission statement, “The DPLA will incorporate all media types and formats including the written record—books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, and digital texts—and expanding into visual and audiovisual materials in concert with existing repositories. In order to lay a solid foundation for its collections, the DPLA will begin with works in the public domain that have already been digitized and are accessible through other initiatives.”
Officially launching on April 18, the DPLA was created through the efforts of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Digital Public Library: the Promise of the Internet fulfilled (by Ben Frederick, Christian Science Monitor)
U.S. Digital Public Library Brings Culture, History Online (by Rob Lever, Lebanon Daily Star)
Digital Public Library of America launches April 18, API Hacks Welcomed (by Gloria Sin, Digital Trends)
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