Moving forward: progress on our 90-day plan

At the beginning of April, DPLA established a 90-day plan that has and will continue to guide our work during this unprecedented time. With May already upon us, we wanted to take a moment to update you on our progress.

Central to our 90-day plan was a commitment to make more content more available to more users. To that end, we recently launched freebooks.dp.la, where anyone can browse and directly download any of the more than 6,300 ebook titles available on DPLA’s Open Bookshelf. It includes classic novels, children’s books, textbooks and non-English titles, all for free, with no login or library card needed. We’d also like to welcome Dorothy Berry, Eve Moeykens-Arballo and Stacy Tomaszewski to our Curation Corps of volunteer librarians, led by Brianna Furcron, who help us select and organize books for freebooks.dp.la. 

We’ve been pleased to come together with our community several times over the course of the last month. On April 14, at our open board meeting, Katie McCormick of Florida State University and the Sunshine State Digital Network; Mark Smith, Director and Librarian at the Texas State Library; and Kelvin Watson, Director of the Broward County Library shared insights about how their organizations are adapting to the moment. If you missed it, you can listen here. 

More than 150 of you joined DPLA Data Fellow Dominic Byrd-McDevitt and Sandra Fauconnier, GLAM-Wiki Specialist at Wikimedia Foundation, for an introductory webinar on how DPLA contributing institutions can increase use and discoverability through Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. We’re planning further training and tutorials around our work with Wikimedia; please tell us what you’d find most useful or reach out to us for more information about how to get involved.

Earlier this week, we joined with our partners at New York Public Library and LYRASIS, as well as Brad Bullis from the Connecticut State Library and Michael Blackwell from St. Mary’s County Library in Maryland, for a webinar introducing the SimplyE platform, and how libraries are using SimplyE to expand ebook access for their patrons. The webinar is available to watch here. We will be scheduling follow-up webinars in the coming weeks. If there are topics you’d find particularly helpful, please let us know. 

All of us at DPLA have been inspired by the work our colleagues are continuing to do in the midst of these extraordinary circumstances, and we send our wishes for your continued health and safety.