One of the earliest speakers at the conference, Dwight McInvaill, a local librarian for North Carolina’s Georgetown County Library, spoke of how important it is to digitize works for the good of the public. His own library’s digital collection gets over 2 million hits a month. ‘Small libraries serve 64.7 million people,” he said, many of those in poverty. “We must engage forcefully in the bright American Digital Renaissance,’ McInvaill proclaimed.”
From Megan Geuss’s post, “Exercises in democracy: building a digital public library”

Libraries continue to adapt to challenges of providing digital content and services across publishers’ restrictions and the digital divide.
“One of the biggest challenges libraries face in this new digital age is the friction in their relationship with publishers, caused largely by the advent of e-books.

Publishers argue that borrowing a printed book from a library requires a patron to physically visit the building and then return a few weeks later to bring it back, which is more difficult thanpurchasing it from an online retailer. When libraries allow patrons to download e-books through one click on a website, the convenience factor that might drive a reader to purchase a book is eliminated. Penguin Group recently blocked Kindle owners from the ability to download library e-books directly from their devices — now they must transfer the e-book from the library site to a computer, and then to a Kindle.”
From Jenny Shank’s article on MindShift, “Changing Policies On Digital Books Wreak Havoc on Libraries”

American Library Association solicits information on library-as-publisher model.
“At this moment in our profession, an increasing number of libraries are engaged in the creation, publication, and preservation of digital content. This may represent an opportunity, or shift in our profession, moving us from the end of a publishing and distribution chain to somewhere closer to the source. The issue we’re investigating here is not generally library relations with existing publishers, but activities where the library takes a lead or key partnership role in getting the content into digital format and delivering it over the long term. That takes us into archiving and preservation. In addition to the processes of gathering, preparing, and posting such content, we are also grappling with the challenges of copyright, fair use, and licensing in the digital environment.”
From Kathleen Hughes’s post on the PLA Blog, “ALA seeks advice about ‘library as publisher’”

Terse,  journalistic prose of Ernest Hemingway now available in digital form from his days as a terse journalist.
“Ernest Hemingway was a columnist for the Toronto Star from 1920-1924 where he wrote 191 stories. More than 70 of them are currently accessible via the digital archive (free). A newsprint version of the material is also available for sale.

Direct to The Hemingway Papers’ Digital Archive

The legendary writer’s reporting from the Toronto Star archives, featuring historical annotations by William McGeary, a former editor who researched Hemingway’s columns extensively for the newspaper, along with new insight and analysis from the Star’s team of Hemingway experts.”
From Gary Price’s post on TeleRead, “Toronto Star Releases Digital Archive of Articles Written by Ernest Hemingway For the Newspaper (1920-1924)”

“Last week’s conference set out to answer a lot of questions. How much content should be centralized, and how much should come from local libraries? How will the Digital Public Library be run? Can an endowment-funded public institution succeed where Google Books has largely failed (a 4,000-word meditation on this topic is offered by Nicholas Carr in MIT’s April Technology Review)?

“Enthusiasm for the project permeated the former Christian Science church where the meeting was held (now the church is the headquarters of Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive). But despite the audience’s applause and wide-eyed wonder, there’s still a long way to go.

“As it stands, the DPLA has a couple million dollars in funding from charitable trusts like the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Arcadia Fund. The organization is applying for 501(c)3 status this year, and its not hard to imagine it running as an NPR-like entity, with some government funding, some private giving, and a lot of fundraisers. But outside of those details, very little about the Digital Public Library has been decided. ‘We’re still grappling with the fundamental question of what exactly is the DPLA,’ John Palfrey, chair of the organization’s steering committee, admitted. The organization must be a bank of documents, and a vast sea of metadata; an advocate for the people, and a partner with publishing houses; a way to make location irrelevant to library access without giving neighborhoods a reason to cut local library funding. And that will be hard to do.”

From Megan Guess’ post on Ars Technica, Exercises in democracy: building a digital public library

Internet Archive writes open letter to publishers offering to buy books.
“By buying eBooks from you, we hope to continue the productive relationship between libraries and publishers. By respecting the rights and responsibilities that have evolved in the physical era, we believe we will all know how to act: one patron at a time, restrictions on copying, re-format for enduring access, and long term preservation.

We understand these are early days, and prices will evolve.  What we would like to do, however, is not lose the relationship libraries have built up with publishers just because we are now buying and lending electronic books rather than physical ones.

Our checkbook is open.   Please sell to us.”
From Brewster Kahle’s post on the Internet Archive Blog, “We Want Buy Your Books! Internet Archive Letter to Publishers”

Mediashift writes about the role of libraries in the Digital Age.
“The mission and responsibilities of libraries may be in flux due to Americans’ ever-increasing use of digital information sources, but Becker points out that it’s the same as it ever was: ‘Libraries have long been at the front lines of providing people with access to new formats for reading and new technology, whether when switching from scrolls to the familiar book format, to newer trends in e-reading.’”
From Jenny Shank’s post on PBS’s MediaShift, “What is the Role of Libraries in the Age of E-Books and Digital Information?”

Harvard releases nearly all of its library data.
“‘This is Big Data for books,’ said David Weinberger, co-director of Harvard’s Library Lab. ‘There might be 100 different attributes for a single object.’ At a one-day test run with 15 hackers working with information on 600,000 items, he said, people created things like visual timelines of when ideas became broadly published, maps showing locations of different items, and a ‘virtual stack’ of related volumes garnered from various locations.”
From Quentin Hardy’s post on the New York Times ‘Bits’ Blog, “Harvard Releases Big Data for Books”

3M enters the market with library e-book and e-reader lending program.
“Is there room in the library e-book field for a competitor to Overdrive? Wired reports that tape and media manufacturer 3M thinks so, and is launching a library e-book lending initiative called the 3M Cloud Library with 40 publishers (including Random House, HarperCollins, Harlequin, and Wiley) and over 100,000 titles.”
From Chris Meadows’s article on TeleRead, “3M launches library e-book and e-reader program” 

Nicholas Carr writes about the DPLA.
“Also unsettled is the critical question of how the DPLA will present itself to the public. David Weinberger, a Berkman researcher who is overseeing the development of the library’s technical platform, says that no decision has been reached on whether the DPLA will offer a ‘front-end interface,’ such as a website or a smart-phone app, or whether it will restrict itself to being a behind-the-scenes data clearinghouse that other organizations can tap into. The technology team’s immediate goals are relatively modest. First the group wants to establish a flexible, open-source protocol for importing catalogue information and other data (such as records of how often books were borrowed) from participating institutions. Then it aims to organize that metadata into a unified database. And next it wants to provide an open programming interface for the database, with the hope of inspiring creative programmers to develop useful applications. Palfrey says that he expects the DPLA to operate its own public website, but he is wary of making any predictions about the functions of that site or the degree to which it may overlap with the online offerings of traditional libraries. While he hopes that the DPLA will be more than a ‘metadata repository,’ he also says he would consider the effort a success even if it ultimately provided just the “plumbing” required to connect diverse and far-flung collections of materials.”
From Nicholas Carr’s article for the MIT Technology Review, “The Library of Utopia” 

Some visual notes from DPLA West and the liveblog we kept during the proceedings.

Photo: Servers at the Internet Archive, the host of DPLA West. Taken by Joseph Mornin.

Praveen Madan stated that browsing a physical bookshelf is three times powerful for discovery than its virtual iteration. That led me to wonder if the DPLA could bring that shelf browsing to the web. Granted it would be an ersatz shelf, but perhaps it would help level the playing field between physical and virtual idea generation. My thought is to have the web GUI be a bookshelf with the titles of the books on the spines and the user would be able to “walk” down the length of the shelf by scrolling. For journal articles or newspapers, there could be a magazine rack like you see at your friendly neighborhood bookstore. This would lend a SIMS or Second Life feel to the DPLA. I admit that this may come off as hokey for some folks but the great thing about technology is the separation of data and display. It would allow the DPLA to have a splash page where the user could choose a view. If they want to see a more tradition web page display, they can. After all, presentation is just as important as the data itself. How many times have you come across a web site, gnashed your teeth at the abomination of a visual display found therein, and went on your not-so-merry way? For that matter how often have you sought out the comfort of a bookstore or library in the stead of scrolling your way through web pages? The DPLA will replace neither wood and glass bookstores nor brick and mortar libraries. Mercifully, I don’t think that’s even their goal. Each institution has its place in the world. The DPLA will soon prove it has a place right along them and perhaps the virtual bookshelf I speak of will speed that acceptance.

Going hand-in-hand with discovery on this walk is agility. And that brings me to Tim O’Reilly. He said that going DRM-free has actually increased his market. So a tool that was implemented to protect the ebook is fast proving to be detrimental to it. Some people are so scared of losing money from illegal copying of e-materials that they’ve shot themselves in the foot. I guess that’s what happens when the conflicting values of profit and dissemination of knowledge clash. The great thing about technology is its mutability. Just because something was put in place doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. Just a short time ago, TOR Books, the sci-fi publishing titan, stated it’s moving to a DRM Free format for its e-catalog. There are also rumblings about Hachette going DRM free. It appears one major dam impeding the DPLA’s flow of knowledge is crumbling. With open formats like ePub available to the DPLA, they need not worry about their offerings being limited to one device or one operating system and that creates a very agile solution.

But perhaps the best thing I’ve heard about the DPLA is their patience. They’re not rushing to get something out there just to have something out there. If the driving forces behind it have the same enthusiasm as I do (and I’m sure mine is but a fraction of theirs) then it’s astounding that they haven’t risked debuting something and having it crash akin to Windows 98. The old maxim “measure twice, cut once” has been supplanted by “read the email twice, send once” as good advice to avoid embarrassing mistakes. It seems to me that the DPLA has taken that to the next level: “Design thrice, release once”. I do, however, wish they’d hurry up already…

“But the dream of a universal digital library lives on. Now a coalition of libraries and archives has come together to create a Digital Public Library of America to fulfill the original vision of a digital library for all. It could well be that an effort without commerce in the mix will have an easier time of it.

“A broad consensus already exists to remove copyright obstacles to orphan works. There is also growing interest in mass digitization of out-of-print works. The arguments for increased access are compelling: These books aren’t producing any revenue for copyright owners, and most of them are unlikely to be reprinted. Libraries already own copies of many of them and want to make them available digitally to their communities. And rights holders can always opt out of a library mass-digitization project.”

From Pamela Samuelson’s op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, A universal digital library is within reach 

We’ll have a full video recording up soon, along with the photos that have already been posted and copies of the wonderful graphic notes taken by our friends at ImageThink. For now, we want to say: many thanks to the fantastic teams at both the San Francisco Public Library and the Internet Archive for hosting us for yesterday’s workstream meetings and today’s events, to the workstream volunteers and the rest of the DPLA community for their ongoing dedication to this effort, and to everyone who participated this week, both in person and online. We look forward to continuing to connect and partner with you as we build the DPLA. More soon!

We’re delighted with our line-up of speakers and participants, and we hope you’re as excited as we are! In addition to our livestream, we encourage you to check out our liveblog, manned by DPLA RAs Allie Morgan, Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, and Kenny Whitebloom:

“With this major contribution, developers will be able to start experimenting with building innovative applications that put to use the vital national resource that consists of our local public and research libraries, museums, archives and cultural collections,” said DPLA Steering Committee Chair John Palfrey in the official Harvard Library press release.  He also stated that he hoped the Harvard release would set a precedent for other institutions’ collections.

The records are available for bulk download in MARC21 format.  The DPLA Tech Dev team has incorporated the records into its database and is making them available through an API.  API documentation from the team is available here.  The API is in early alpha, so any and all feedback is welcome as the team continues to refine.  The team celebrated the metadata release in their post, “Going live with Harvard’s catalog.”

Amazing work in the digital humanities could be done with the metadata.  The New York Times’ Bits Blog discussed the release with David Weinberger: “‘This is Big Data for books,’ said David Weinberger, co-director of Harvard’s Library Lab. ‘There might be 100 different attributes for a single object.’ At a one-day test run with 15 hackers working with information on 600,000 items, he said, people created things like visual timelines of when ideas became broadly published, maps showing locations of different items, and a ‘virtual stack’ of related volumes garnered from various locations.”

Though metadata is distinct from the content it describes, this sort of data is essential to the growing DPLA and is a vital step towards the project’s realization.