This is the second blog in a series from DPLA’s Digital Equity Project: Advancing Racial Justice in American Libraries. (You can find the first here.) This month, I am pleased to share with you an update from Teresa Cain, Sarah Gherghel, and Debbie Rubenstein at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library on the library’s Living Archives, one of […]

This is the first blog in a series from DPLA’s Digital Equity Project: Advancing Racial Justice in American Libraries. Derek Webb, Head of Archives at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries shares how the partnership between the Libraries and The Milwaukee Women’s Art Library and their collaboration on a new community ambassador position seeks to bridge […]

On Tuesday, we gathered with more than 70 of our colleagues for an information session on our recently announced Digital Equity Project. Our goal was to give some context and background on the project, share information on our big-picture plans and the opportunities this new funding presents, and answer questions from our community.  In 2019, […]

Today, I am pleased to share that we have partnered with an initial cohort of three organizations to form a Digital Equity Project Community of Practice: Charlotte Mecklenburg Library; Seattle Public Library; and DPLA’s Recollection Wisconsin Hub / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Each of these organizations will receive subgrant awards to pursue a project dedicated to digital capacity building.

Yesterday, we hosted the first of a series of book talks we are presenting in partnership with the MIT Press.  Author Alexander Monea joined us to talk about his book The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight, in conversation with Angel Ysaguirre, executive director of the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Wednesday for our 2021 Members Meeting around building inclusion in a digital world and our network’s IDEAS (inclusion, diversity, equity, access, and social justice) work. We so enjoyed re-connecting with all of you and learning about your efforts to turn the corner from talking about equity and inclusion to actually determining what that means to every aspect of our work, from search and discovery to metadata to partnerships. We were inspired by your energy, enthusiasm, and thoughtfulness about the path ahead of us.

Last week’s event—Race, Gender, Politics, and History: Reconstructing Visibility of Black Women’s Activism—was the best-attended webinar in DPLA’s history. We’d like to thank everyone who joined us for five informative and thought-provoking presentations by people and organizations at the forefront of the work to lift up and celebrate Black women’s contributions to not only the suffrage movement but the history of protest and activism in the United States.

We’ve been hearing from public libraries and others around the country who are recommending DPLA to their patrons and communities for free access to cultural heritage artifacts, ebooks, and educational and genealogical resources.

When we think about the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S., white suffragists like Susan B. Anthony typically come to mind. But there were Black suffragists too – women who, in addition to fighting for gender equality during this monumental moment in history, were also fighting for racial equality. Black women played an important role […]