<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br><br>Sent from my iPhone</div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> Kenny Whitebloom <<a href="mailto:kwhitebloom@cyber.law.harvard.edu">kwhitebloom@cyber.law.harvard.edu</a>><br><b>Date:</b> April 18, 2013, 12:25:57 PM EDT<br><b>To:</b> Berkman Friends <<a href="mailto:berkmanfriends@eon.law.harvard.edu">berkmanfriends@eon.law.harvard.edu</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[berkmanfriends] Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Launches Today</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<h3>Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Launches Today</h3>
<i>April 18, 2013</i><br>
<br>
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) <a href="http://dp.la/">launched a beta of its discovery portal</a>
and open platform today. The portal delivers millions of materials
found in American archives, libraries, museums, and cultural
heritage institutions to students, teachers, scholars, and the
public. Far more than a search engine, the portal provides
innovative ways to search and scan through its united collection of
distributed resources. Special features include a dynamic map, a
timeline that allow users to visually browse by year or decade, and
an app library that provides access to applications and tools
created by external developers using DPLA’s open data.<br>
<br>
“The wonder and joy of entering an expansive library for the first
time is truly a special feeling. We are delighted to be able to
share this unified, open collection with Americans and the world,
and can’t wait to see what people discover, and what new
applications and knowledge will be created,” said Dan Cohen,
Executive Director of the DPLA.<br>
<br>
"Many decades in the visioning, two and a half years in the
planning, with a small steering committee and an incubation hub at
the helm, and featuring dozens of great libraries, universities and
archives involved in hundreds of meetings, workshops, plenary
meetings, and hackathons, attracting thousands of volunteers backed
by millions of foundation and government dollars, today the Digital
Public Library of America goes live! It's a great day for education
and progress, as if the Ancient Library of Alexandria had met the
modern World Wide Web and digitized America for the benefit of all,"
said Doron Weber, Vice Chair of the DPLA Steering Committee and Vice
President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a major,
active funder of the project. <br>
<br>
The DPLA portal is powered by a rich repository of information,
known as the DPLA platform, which enables new and transformative
uses of America’s digitized cultural heritage. With an application
programming interface (API) and maximally open data, the DPLA can be
used by software developers, researchers, and others to create novel
environments for learning, tools for discovery, and engaging apps.
The DPLA App Library (<a href="http://dp.la/apps/">dp.la/apps</a>)
features an initial slate of applications built on top of the
platform; developers and hobbyists of all skill levels are freely
able to make use of the data provided via the platform.<br>
<br>
"The DPLA launches virtually today, a symbol of what people can
accomplish through collaboration in a networked era," said John
Palfrey, President of the Board of Directors of the DPLA. "The most
exciting idea is that we cannot begin to imagine the extraordinary
things that librarians and their many partners can accomplish with
this open platform and such extraordinarily rich materials, from so
many institutions large and small, together and at the ready. We
will create new knowledge together and make accessible, free to all,
information that people need in order to thrive in a democracy."<br>
<br>
“The DPLA’s goal is to bring the entire nation’s rich cultural
collections off the shelves and into the innovative environment of
the Internet for people to discover, download, remix, reuse and
build on in ways we haven’t yet begun to imagine,” said Maura Marx,
Director of the DPLA Secretariat. “Regular users can search in the
traditional way using the portal, and developers and innovators can
build on big chunks of code and content using the platform—we’re
creating access, not controlling it.”<br>
<br>
Led by Cohen, the DPLA aims to expand the realm of openly available
materials, and make those riches more easily discovered and more
widely usable and used. To date, the DPLA has partnered with six
state and regional digital libraries and an equal number of large
cultural heritage institutions— including the National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA), the Smithsonian Institution, the New
York Public Library, and Harvard University—to provide access to
millions of unique digital objects.<br>
<br>
“Among the 2.4 million records available at launch, you will find
gems that include daguerreotypes of former Presidents George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln, images of women marching for the
vote in Kentucky, news film clips of the Freedom Riders during the
Civil Rights movement, The Book of Hours, an illuminated manuscript
from 1514, <i>Notes on the State of Virginia</i>, written by Thomas
Jefferson, and paintings by Winslow Homer,” said Emily Gore, DPLA
Director for Content. <br>
<br>
With its content partners, the DPLA has developed a number of
diverse virtual exhibitions (<a href="http://dp.la/exhibitions/">dp.la/exhibitions</a>)
that tell the stories of people, places, and historical events both
here in the US and abroad; all are available freely via the portal.
<i>A History of Survivance: 19th c. Upper Midwest Native American
Resources in the DPLA</i>, developed by the Minnesota Digital
Library, tells the story of extraordinary cultural disruption,
change and continuity in Minnesota and the surrounding areas during
the 19th century through objects of both Native and non-Native
origin. Other exhibitions include <i>Boston Sports Temples</i>,
developed by Digital Commonwealth (Massachusetts), which celebrates
the rich histories of Boston’s professional stadiums and arenas; and
<i>This Land Is Your Land: Parks and Public Spaces</i>, an
exploration of the history, impact, and significance of our national
parks and protected areas curated by the South Carolina Digital
Library.<br>
<br>
“The project unleashes access to a volume and variety of historical
and cultural assets through a dynamic, digitized information
platform,” said Jorge Martinez, Vice President and Chief Technology
Officer at the Knight Foundation. “It offers an invaluable
opportunity to reanimate this information and further strengthen the
roles of libraries as centers for engagement—bringing communities
together, fostering deeper understanding and connecting people with
traditional culture—by leveraging the power of new technology.”<br>
<br>
The DPLA began in October 2010 with a small meeting of
representatives from foundations, research institutions, cultural
organizations, government, and libraries who came together to
discuss best approaches to building a national digital library. In
2011, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
University established, with the support of Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation, a two-year planning initiative to guide the
conceptualization, planning, and development of the DPLA. <br>
<br>
Today’s launch is, in large part, the culmination of that effort,
marking the transition from a two-year planning initiative towards a
fully realized, standalone 501(c)3 non-profit organization that will
continue to make the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and
museums freely available to the world.<br>
<br>
A series of festivities to celebrate the launch, scheduled to occur
at the Boston Public Library today and tomorrow, were postponed
until the fall in the wake of the April 15 Boston Marathon tragedy,
which occurred near the storied public library.<br>
<br>
“I see the building of a new library as one of the greatest examples
of what humans can do together to extend the light against the
darkness,” said Dan Cohen, reflecting on the recent events in a <a href="http://dp.la/info/2013/04/16/a-message-from-executive-director-dan-cohen/">letter
to the DPLA community</a>. “In due time, we will let that light
shine through.”<br>
<br>
<b>About the Digital Public Library of America</b><br>
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the
riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them
freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full
breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art
and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and
data of science. The DPLA aims to expand this crucial realm of
openly available materials, and make those riches more easily
discovered and more widely usable and used.<br>
<br>
The DPLA is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Arcadia
Fund, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, and the National Endowment for the
Humanities.<br>
<br>
More information is online at <a href="http://dp.la">http://dp.la</a>.
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