Now, on the 50th anniversary of this tragic day, users can look at the evidence themselves using the DPLA archives.

The DPLA model revolves around collaborating with many partners who contribute content and metadata to the DPLA—and, as a result, users, libraries and public institutions across the country. The DPLA is continually adding new service partners and extending our reach in establishing a fully representative, national network. This past October, the DPLA welcomed the North Carolina Digital Heritage Network (NCDHN) into its community of partners and users—adding more than 123,000 items into our collection.

At this year’s DPLAfest opening reception on October 24, the three main elements of the DPLA model were re-iterated to the audience: that it is a portal, a platform, and a principle of open access for the public. These ideas were touched upon independently throughout the October 25 workshop series, as you can see in the conference live notes: it’s use as a portal in relationship to community outreach, or it’s use as a platform in emerging technological advances using our open access API, among other topics. However, these three DPLA missions really merged together in the discussions surrounding content.

A major thread throughout DPLAfest was the focus on building our communities of partners and users—many of whom were present to both celebrate their involvement with the DPLA and learn new ways to expand on that relationship. There was also a hands-on component that helped interested organizations not yet part of the DPLA network become involved.

While our nearly 20 workshops at this year’s DPLAfest covered a wide range of topics (which you can recap using the conference live notes), a major theme in both presentations and discussions centered around using the DPLA’s API and metadata—specifically, how users can be involved in using that data, while also helping to clean it up in a way that is vetted and accurate. It was a subject that was interwoven into a variety of workshops throughout the day on October 25.

Just last week, from October 24-25, we held our first DPLAfest—two days of vibrant discussions and workshops that brought together more than 450 librarians, archivists, museum professionals, developers, technologists, publishers, authors, teachers, students and others from across the country.

With just a few days left before the start of this year’s DPLAfest, we’re all hard at work to put together a memorable experience for participants. There are a lot of chances to learn something new, talk through ideas, and see what tools the DPLA has to offer researchers and institutions. With so much happening, a quick look at the full agenda for Friday might seem overwhelming. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the many interesting workshops.

An interview with Jamie Hollier of the DPLA Board of Directors and DPLA research assistant Hillary Brady.