DPLAmats Allie Morgan and Kenny Whitebloom interviewed participants at the April 2012 DPLA West plenary meeting to capture their thoughts and reactions from the day.

DPLA research assistants interview a number of DPLA West scholarship recipients to capture their thoughts on the DPLA and other library related topics.

The first Digital Library Digest of the summer features the ReadersFirst Initiative for improved ebook access, plans for a national digital summer reading program, and a major addition to Bhutan’s National Library.

Steering Committee Chair John Palfrey checks in with a video update about the April 2012 DPLA West plenary meeting and future plans for the DPLA.

“Most neighborhoods in America have a public library. Now the biggest neighborhood in America, the Internet, wants a library of its own. Last week, Ars attended a conference held by the Digital Public Library of America, a nascent group of intellectuals hoping to put all of America’s library holdings online.”

One library science student gives his take on DPLA West.

“But the dream of a universal digital library lives on. Now a coalition of libraries and archives has come together to create a Digital Public Library of America to fulfill the original vision of a digital library for all. It could well be that an effort without commerce in the mix will have an easier time of it.”

“On April 27, DPLA West brought together over 400 librarians, technologists, public policy advocates, and a very small number of publishers at the Internet Archive in San Francisco to discuss the progress of the most visible effort yet to forge a common digital library for both Americans and the world: the nascent Digital Public Library of America.”

Nicholas Carr profiles the Digital Public Library of America planning initiative in the May/June 2012 issue of “Technology Review,” published by MIT.

“The metadata will be available for bulk download both from Harvard and from the Digital Public Library of America, which is an effort to create a national public library online.”

“Palfrey spoke to librarians across the country about the DPLA yesterday at the ACRL Spring Virtual Institute.”

In an interview with Library Journal, Jay Jordan, OCLC CEO, mentions his interactions with the DPLA.

“The ‘Digital Public Library of America’ will, well, provide a Google-Books-like experience but without the hassles of lawsuits. Harvard university librarian and member of the DPLA steering committee Robert Darnton recently made a ‘promise’ that the project would launch in April of 2013.”

“BHL is one of the first key data sets that is being used in the test bed for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Not sure what the DPLA is? Well, it’s a bold initiative to create a large scale digital library for the United States and the world.”

“Darnton, who represents Harvard, said that the idea behind the library is to make America’s ‘cultural heritage accessible, free of charge, to all of our countrymen and women, in fact to everyone in the world.'”

“Enter the Digital Public Library of America, which aims to create a similar catalog of works, but both more comprehensive and unimpeded by commercial motives. It’s been in the works for a while, but it seems it may finally launch as early as a year from now.”

Library Journal article describing Robert Darnton’s April 2012 talk at Columbia Law School.

“At a talk at Columbia Law School on April 2, Harvard University librarian Robert Darnton promised that the Digital Public Library of America, a nonprofit effort to offer free access to millions of digitized books, would become a reality by this time next year.”

“Scholar and Harvard University librarian Robert Darnton vowed that the Digital Public Library of America, a nonprofit, nationwide effort to digitize and offer access to millions of free, digitized books and special collections would launch by April of 2013.”

An article in Spring 2012 “JISC Inform” on the Digital Public Library of America, featuring an interview with Robert Darnton.