National Endowment for the Humanities announces award to support expansion of DPLA Hub network

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $250,000 to the Digital Public Library of America today, in support of DPLA’s effort to continue to build its network of Service Hubs across the United States. The funds will be used to help cover states that currently do not have an on-ramp, through a state or regional digital library, for their collections to get into DPLA’s national, open collection. The award is being made as part of NEH’s new Common Good initiative, which is highlighting and demonstrating the importance of the humanities to the general public.

“We see our mission of bringing the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums to everyone as in great harmony with Chairman Adams’ Common Good initiative,” said Dan Cohen, DPLA’s Executive Director. “We deeply appreciate receiving this funding under that banner, and look forward to working with NEH and its other grantees to connect the public with the works of the humanities for years to come.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities has been a major supporter of DPLA from its inception. Today’s grant supplements the $1,000,000 that NEH provided to help launch DPLA in April 2013.

“These supplemental funds from NEH will allow us to continue to grow the map by supporting DPLA’s efforts to assist in the development of new state and regional based Service Hubs,” said Emily Gore, DPLA Director for Content. “The increase in hubs will allow us to come closer to reaching our goal of having an on-ramp to DPLA for all interested cultural heritage institutions in the US.”

The NEH’s official announcement can be found here.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

About DPLA

The Digital Public Library of America (http://dp.la) 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. Since launching in April 2013, it has aggregated over 8.5 million items from over 1,700 institutions. The DPLA is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit.