DPLA to leverage new Knight Foundation support to expand access to knowledge via Palace Marketplace

By DPLA, June 21, 2022.
Published under:

DPLA’s ebook work is a key part of our mission to advance digital access to knowledge for all. Earlier this month, The Palace Project app and platform officially launched and are already in use by more than 125 libraries, with 300 more coming online in the coming weeks. 

Today, we are pleased to share that DPLA has received a new $150,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to further DPLA’s work to advance The Palace Project. This funding will allow us to expand Palace Marketplace, the only not-for-profit ebook and audiobook marketplace, as well as Palace Bookshelf, our collection of more than 11,000 open-access ebooks curated by the DPLA Curation Corps of librarians.

“The Palace Project is already helping boost equitable access to knowledge in communities across the country,” said George Martinez, chief technology officer for Knight Foundation. “We’re thrilled to provide additional support to DPLA to expand the adoption of the Palace platform by libraries and librarians. As trusted institutions, libraries are an essential conduit for information and free speech to help build more informed and engaged communities.”

DPLA is committed to working with publishers to make a variety of flexible licensing models available to libraries. Libraries can choose from more than 1 million titles from all of the “Big 5” publishers and hundreds of independent publishers available in the marketplace, and, in addition, we have recently completed our rollout of all 7,000+ previously published titles from Amazon Publishing as part of an agreement we announced last spring. Newly released Amazon Publishing titles will flow in on a rolling basis

You can learn more about our ebooks work, and The Palace Project, by joining us at the ALA Annual Conference: We’ll give our DPLA update on Saturday, June 25 at 9am, our 4th annual Ebook Innovation Lightning Round will be on Saturday at 2:30pm, and a reception to celebrate The Palace Project will begin Saturday at 5pm. Get the details here. You can also visit LYRASIS booth #2933 for a Palace app demo.  

DPLA’s ebook work is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Palace Project is committed to building and expanding a digital future for libraries and their patrons, and builds off of a longstanding investment in DPLA’s ebook work by Sloan Foundation. It is a division of Lyrasis, working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America and funded by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment by the Knight Foundation. 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. Learn more at kf.org and follow @knightfdn on social media.