“One of the settled principles of DPLA is that access should be free at the point of the end-user. That doesn’t mean there isn’t money in the system, for of course there will have to be — probably a great deal of it. Instead it means that the compensation for the costs of services is embedded elsewhere, and must be developed through other mechanisms than user taxation, and probably a mix of them. This mix might include new Federal support, probably funneled through existing agencies such as the Library of Congress or the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); continued philanthropic support; the repurposing of existing streams of funding at the Federal, State, or local levels; and some kind of optional local library participation or membership.”
From Peter Brantley’s post on PWxyz, DPLA: Hope and Effort