Jesse Shapins, co-founder and associate director of the metaLab (at) Harvard University, talked briefly about his personal vision for the DPLA during the October 2011 Plenary.

“It’s time for a wholesale reconceptualization that inserts multimedia kiosks into the very fabric of the existing architecture of one of the few remaining truly public spaces in contemporary life: the local public library.”

Barbara Namugayi and Martina Darragh spoke with us at the October 2011 Plenary Meeting about the ways the DPLA may complement the open access movement and IT community.

Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of the National Information Standards Organization, provides his impression of the October 2011 Plenary Meeting.

“The vision of the DPLA connecting citizens to and through electronic materials could revolutionize the social structures of education.”

“We, along with many of our members, have been, and continue to be, supporters of the idea for a truly publically available digitized national library. The DPLA is on the way to making this vision a reality.”

Sally Sinn of the National Library of Medicine gives her perspective on the DPLA’s next steps, as well as its great potential.

Zachary Coble, the systems and emerging technologies librarian at Gettysburg College, gives a brief summary of his perspective on the DPLA’s progress and future.

Read an excerpt from Matthew Boylan’s post on the New York Public Library blog.

“In a session on the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Robert Darnton, Director of the Harvard University Library, likened the concept to Thomas Jefferson’s observation that often the use of something does not diminish its value.”

“I want to offer a work-in-progress report on the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and to argue that it is a feasible, affordable project as well as an opportunity to realize the Enlightenment ideals on which our country was founded.”

“The operation is making quick progress and should have a full operational online database set up by April 2013.”

“During the last two weeks, two major national events exploring the frontiers of e-publishing took place on opposite coasts of the US…”

“Distributed content might be an appealing vision even at the scale of DPLA, where a wide range of digital treasures reside at local public libraries, archives, and museums.”

” So, enter the DPLA: a digital library mega-effort with an ambitious goal to make all of our rich cultural heritage available across the web. How will that change the activities in library spaces in rural Texan towns or neighborhood libraries in San Jose?”

The development private philanthropy to fund public libraries, federal, state, regional and local support of libraries and networks, the emergence of library consortia and meta data standardization, suggest the elements needed to build the DPLA.

“Enter the nonprofit alternative for bringing the world’s books online for all readers: the newly-funded Digital Public Library of America.”

One of the settled principles of DPLA is that access should be free at the point of the end-user.

Kara Novak writes about the October 21 Plenary Meeting in Washington DC for PublicKnowledge.org

“The push by Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society to create a large-scale digital library got a $5 million boost on Oct. 21.”