News Archive

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Library leaders reflect on 2023 Knight Library Conference

Late last month, we had the pleasure of working with Knight Foundation to bring together 50 library leaders from across the country. Our conversations focused on how libraries are meeting the needs of this moment in our history and the evolving and essential role libraries play in our communities and our nation at large. We will extend this conversation at our Open Board + Community Meeting on April 10, 2023, at 2p ET; this meeting is open to all and we invite you to join us. In the meantime, we asked several of our colleagues to share their reflections on and takeaways from last month’s gathering with us:

March 15, 2023

Leveraging Wikimedia for increased visibility + upcoming coffee chat

A single point of access to the riches of America’s cultural heritage stewarded by libraries, archives, and museums across the nation. Ten years ago, that was the audacious founding vision of DPLA. To more fully realize that vision, DPLA has pioneered a program that connects our nation’s cultural heritage to Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. Late last month, DPLA presented more about this work at ALA’s inaugural LibLearn X in New Orleans. 

February 15, 2023

Palace Marketplace to offer more than 200,000 new titles by independent authors

Digital Public Library of America is pleased to announce the launch of a new independent author catalog in Palace Marketplace. Palace Marketplace now offers more than 1.2 million ebooks and audiobooks from all of the “Big 5” publishers, Amazon Publishing, Audible, hundreds of mid-sized and independent publishers, and independent authors. The addition of these new titles will help libraries expand access to diverse content at reasonable licensing terms while supporting independent authors.

February 9, 2023

DPLA seeks librarians to join Curation Corps (closed 2/23/23)

Our mission at DPLA is to maximize access to our shared history, culture, and knowledge. One of the ways we do this is through our ebooks program, which is an important and growing area of our work. Our ebooks work includes our management of Palace Marketplace, the only non-profit digital content marketplace for libraries; Palace Bookshelf, our ever-expanding collection of more than 15,000 open-access ebooks; and DPLA Publications, our collection of free, easy-to-read ebook versions of public documents. 

January 5, 2023

DPLA to make cultural treasures freely available on Wikipedia with new Sloan Foundation support

A $750,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to the Digital Public Library of America will fuel a multi-year effort to connect America’s cultural heritage institutions with Wikipedia, the world’s free online encyclopedia. This grant will offer an opportunity to make millions of cultural treasures from hundreds of American libraries, archives, and museums freely available online, including Renaissance manuscripts from Philadelphia’s Science History Institute; historic photos of the Pacific Northwest from Seattle Public Library; and portraits of 18th-century actors from the University of Illinois.

January 4, 2023

DPLA releases free January 6th on the Record ebook

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the release of January 6th on the Record: The Investigation into the Attack on the U.S. Capitol, a free ebook compendium of materials related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the subsequent hearings held by the House Select Committee investigating the attack. At DPLA, we believe that open and convenient access to information is an essential service core to the role libraries have played in democratic societies for generations. Part of our commitment to maintaining access to information for all is the publication of free, easy-to-read ebook versions of important government documents.

September 22, 2022

DPLA Board of Directors elects Felton Thomas as chair

We are pleased to share that the DPLA Board of Directors elected Felton Thomas, Jr., executive director and CEO of Cleveland Public Library, as its new chair at its annual  meeting last month. His term as chair will extend through June 2025. Thomas will replace Denise Stephens, the Peggy V. Helmerich Dean of University Libraries at the University of Oklahoma, whose term of service has ended after six years, the last three of which she served as board chair. 

September 7, 2022

DPLA releases free ebook version of Dobbs decision

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the release of our latest publication, an ebook version of the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. 

July 15, 2022

DPLA receives $850,000 in new funding from the Mellon Foundation to support the advancement of racial equity in American archives

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce an $850,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support its effort to advance racial justice in American archives. This funding will enable DPLA to launch a digital equity project to develop community-based partners and increase partner capacity to lead this work. The three-year project will provide support for underrepresented, under-resourced archives and expand DPLA’s capacity for supporting and partnering with diverse archival projects.

June 27, 2022

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

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.

June 21, 2022

Will you be at ALA Annual 2022?

Dear Friends of DPLA, We are looking forward to being back at ALA Annual in just a couple of short weeks, and hope to see many of you in person for the first time in far too long. We are pleased to share that there will be several opportunities to gather with DPLA colleagues and […]

June 8, 2022

The Palace Project launches new platform and app to enable equitable econtent access

Last summer, we shared the news that we and our partners at LYRASIS were launching The Palace Project, a transformational library-centered platform for the delivery of digital content, made possible by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment by the Knight Foundation. Today, we are pleased to announce that The Palace Project platform and app have launched, and more than 100 libraries already are using Palace.

June 2, 2022

DPLA April events explored book banning and ebook accessibility

Last week, the DPLA community gathered to explore two topics critical to our mission of advancing equitable access to knowledge for all.  On Monday, April 11, at our quarterly Open Board + Community Meeting, Kelvin Watson, DPLA board member and executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, moderated a conversation with two librarians […]

April 21, 2022

Palace Marketplace launches Penguin Random House titles to bring total offering to over 1 million ebooks and audiobooks

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce that more than 85,000 titles from Penguin Random House (PRH) and PRH distribution partners are now available in Palace Marketplace (formerly DPLA Exchange), the only not-for-profit library e-content marketplace. Palace Marketplace now offers more than 1 million ebooks and audiobooks from more than 1,000 publishers, […]

April 11, 2022

Our 2021 year in review

As 2021 draws to a close, all of us at DPLA wish to extend our gratitude for all of your efforts to advance our work this year. As we look back on the progress we’ve made in 2021, we know none of it would be possible without the talent and dedication of our community. We […]

December 16, 2021

Addressing misinformation, one patron at a time

Earlier this week, DPLA hosted Addressing Health Misinformation Through Community, a conversation with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy and Knight Foundation. The gathering brought together a set of library, civic, and philanthropic leaders to discuss practical ways to counter health misinformation.  The scourge of misinformation is not an abstract issue, it is an urgent […]

November 12, 2021

DPLA expands board with four new directors

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) today welcomes four library and civic leaders to our board of directors: Joshua Frazier-Sparks, Director of Culture, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Walmart; Joseph Lucia, Dean of Libraries at Temple University; Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium and Kelvin Watson, Executive Director of Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

October 5, 2021
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