“Essentially, the thought is that the front-end of a digital collection no longer needs to be intrinsically tied to the back-end. Archives can select, acquire, and preserve objects, while libraries/museums can handle discovery and access, creating overlapping, dynamic collections that pull objects from archives.”
“Based on following the listserv, there has been a lot of energy, which can sometimes seem to be more heat than light, invested in the determination of the definition of each individual word in that name–Digital, Public, Library, and I swear, sometimes even America.”
“The Digital Public Library of America has some pretty big supporters examining the possibility of creating a digitized library for the United States, while Europeana, backed by the European Commission, provides a portal to 15 million digital works from institutions in many EU member states.”
From Nate Hill: “I’m writing about all of this here because I think the grand, idealistic, unifying schemes of Neurath can be informative in the design process for the Digital Public Library of America.”
“The Digital Public Library of America initiative, led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, has been gaining steam and has elicited a lively debate on the DPLA’s discussion listserv about how any such institution should be constituted.”
From David Rothman: “I myself am very open to a compromise on forking. The DPLA could agree to do the fork in X number of months and meanwhile be more open about its activities, especially in regard to the Steering Committee and other gatherings, both the in-person and virtual varieties.”
“And with this thought, who better to take on the role of patron of our DPLA then Benjamin Franklin? We’re all familiar with the quote attributed him at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, ‘We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.'”
“The public library may be one of this nation’s most important cultural and civic institutions. Yet it faces a number of threats – budget crises at the state and local level and the shift in the publishing industry from print to digital books. Of course, the library is more than just a repository for books – paper or otherwise.”
From Robert H. McDonald: “The Digital Public Library of America announced today their Beta Sprint. I was just at a meeting with this group in Amsterdam and I am very intrigued by this type of community outreach within their planning process.”
“The Digital Public Library of America is inviting librarians, programmers and others to come up with mock screenshots, actual coded sites or other demos—as part of a beta sprint program.”
