DPLA Press Roundup: May 17, 2013
U MAD??? Evgeny Morozov, The Internet, And The Failure Of Invective
“This brought home to me that Morozov does not describe the Internet I know at all. My Internet is not only the Mark Zuckerberg Internet, or the Kleiner Perkins Internet; it’s the Internet of Michael Hart and Brewster Kahle, Aaron Swartz and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science and the new Digital Public Library of America, JSTOR and countless public archives and library and museum sites all over the world. It’s the Internet of preservationists and digital humanitarians, of scholars and intellectuals of all kinds.”
From Maria Bustillo’s article on The Awl, U MAD??? Evgeny Morozov, The Internet, And The Failure Of Invective
Digital Public Library Raises Questions of Ownership, Permanence, Access
“I see the DPLA as an encouraging example of our emerging digital civil society. Libraries in their familiar form represent community centers of knowledge, havens for voracious readers, on-ramps to broadband, and accessible hubs staffed by expert researchers there to help you. In the U.S., they rely on tax revenue and philanthropic resources and are often governed and managed by a robust mix of citizen volunteers, professional experts, and public servants. They physically embody the democratic ideals of inclusion, pluralism, participation, and progress.”
From Lucy Bernholz’ article on PBS’ Mediashift, Digital Public Library Raises Questions of Ownership, Permanence, Access
Digital Libraries and the Idea of Literacy
“The Digital Public Library of America launched April 18th with the goal of linking America’s libraries, archives, and museums and making them freely available to everyone. This platform will enable new and transformative uses of our newly-digitized cultural heritage. From an historical standpoint and for preservation and accessibility it’s wonderful, similar to the idea of restoring films and preserving both newly-mastered film and digital copies.”
From Brian Sadie’s post on Boom Writer, Digital Libraries and the Idea of Literacy
Mapping Nations as Birds of Peace (or Prey)
“An image that is newly accessible to all through the DPLA, a platform that exists in purely digital form, and is in part the brainchild of Robert Darnton and a group of Harvard librarians, provides a digital archive of national memory as it’s been set up–although one might quibble whether to showcase exhibitions of the history of Fenway park (now expanded to ‘Boston Sports Temples’) or the Indy 500 at the same level as, say, the experience of women before 1900 or the place of African Americans in WWI, but the arrival of up to 38,000 maps and other items within the DPLA is a cause for true celebration, and not only among map freaks: the repository dignifies a critical historical resource that has been underused and too often left in the hands of antiquarians–to whom we are all now deeply indebted to having preserved. This is a magnificent opportunity, after all, to reflect collectively on what maps mean as documents, paying special attention to what sorts of arguments they present–as well as ‘what stories they tell.’ The national atlas collection alone that Rumsey has assembled provides an inventory not only for 38,000 places you’ll never go, but 38,000 ways of looking at the world. The eagle of the United States is one of these.”
From Daniel Brownstein’s post on Musings on Maps, Mapping Nations as Birds of Peace (or Prey)