HEB and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

As part of its ongoing policy of urging the inter-institutional coordination of digital scholarly resources (see “Ten Years Later: The Future Is Past,” HEB News 3.2, Spring 2009), HEB was very pleased to be part of the initial Digital Public Library of America planning workshop in early March at Harvard University, hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

The meeting included many key people from the world of digital humanities—including scholars, librarians and university presses—as well as people from public libraries and commercial interests.

There was a lively discussion on the content and scope of a potential DPLA, but this was just a first step in defining this bold initiative spearheaded by historian Robert Darnton. A report of the results of the first meeting can be found online at:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/dpla/March_1_Workshop_Notes.

There is an opportunity to subscribe to the DPLA listserv at:
https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/lists/subscribe/dpla-discussion.

Professor Darnton's talk and article on DPLA (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/28/can-we-create-national-digital-library) will also be of interest to scholars and librarians concerned about our digital future.