Digital Public Library of America is pleased to announce that we are beginning production on the publication of a new ebook, tentatively titled By the Quill of Her Pen: Black Suffragists in Their Own Words. This new DPLA-published ebook will be a collection of 20-30 letters, diary entries, and accompanying photographs and biographical information that […]

Over the last couple of weeks, the DPLA technology team and I have spent some time evaluating the progress we made in the last year, and looking ahead to how we can make the biggest impact in 2021. I wanted to take a minute to update you on steps we are taking to improve access and discovery of artifacts in the DPLA aggregation.

I am pleased to share that you now can find more than half a million ebooks and audiobooks from over 1,000 publishers on the newly redesigned DPLA Exchange, the only library-owned ebook and audiobook marketplace.

On January 15th, at our Open Board + Community meeting, we hosted a community conversation, Reckoning with Our Pasts + Building Our Futures, about working to live up to our common commitments to equity and inclusion in 2021 and beyond.

A Wikimedia project update, upcoming events, hub network news, and more

The Digital Public Library of America brings together resources and collections from institutions across the country, all on one easily accessible platform. Because of this, DPLA has the ability to inform people about little-known collections and resources as well help coordinate and model best practices in the library/archives field with regard to our DEI values, descriptive standards, and ethical issues pertaining to rights and intellectual property.

Under the leadership of director Michael Blackwell, St. Mary’s County Library in Maryland has been an active participant in DPLA’s ebook work. We talked with Michael about his library’s experience with SimplyE, and how it’s helped to maximize access for patrons in St. Mary’s County.

Join us on Friday, January 15, 2021, at 2 pm ET for our next Community + Open Board meeting. We’ll be hosting Reckoning with Our Pasts and Building Our Futures, a community conversation about the work to be done to live up to our common commitments to equity and inclusion in 2021 and beyond, as […]

Last week DPLA hosted our first (virtual) holiday reception. It was a risk– none of us had ever been to a virtual holiday reception before, and we weren’t sure exactly what we would do, or even if anyone would come. But with the encouragement of some of our friends (thanks, Keila!), we took that risk, and ended up with a gathering of more than 40 public librarians, college and middle school educators, technologists and funders. We were joined by DPLA founders, longtime collaborators, and people whom we only met this year. I was reminded of the value of taking risks; the collective effort that is DPLA is itself a risk. And I was struck, as I have been so many times this year, by the breadth, dedication, and resilience of the extended DPLA community. With that in mind, I wanted to reflect on some of our achievements this year.

DPLA’s Open Bookshelf is a collection of more than 8,000 free ebooks that includes a wide range of titles from classics to children’s books to textbooks, and everything in between. Anyone can get instant access—no registration required— at freebooks.dp.la or by using the free SimplyE app and choosing “Digital Public Library of America” as your […]

As we look back on the ups and downs of our own year at DPLA, we wanted to share with you some information about how the 1.5 million people who visited dp.la this year used our resources:

News emerged this week that, as part of DPLA’s work to expand access to digital materials, we have been in talks with Amazon Publishing about making their titles available to libraries through the DPLA Exchange. While these are just talks at this point, I wanted to take a moment to provide an update on this […]

All the latest news from DPLA, plus upcoming events, and more.

The Texas State Library began purchasing books from the DPLA Exchange in 2019 and now has acquired more books than any other library from DPLA.

Today, we are happy to announce the launch of a new and improved DPLA Exchange. We’ve introduced a brand new look, as well as new features to make ebook and audiobook collection development a seamless part of your library workflow

On Thursday, October 29, 2020, from 2 – 3:30 pm ET, DPLA will host a virtual event, the latest in our series of programming related to Black women and activism, in collaboration with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Many of us are feeling a mix of anger, rage, sadness, and fear this fall, particularly this week in the wake of Kentucky authorities’ refusal to hold to account the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor. At the Digital Public Library of America we have been reflecting on our roles and responsibilities. We were founded, 10 years ago next week, with a mission to ensure equitable access to digital knowledge, and at this moment we feel an added urgency to make certain that our deeds align with our stated aims.

The DPLA Assessment Working Group invites all DPLA member hub representatives to a member webinar, Guide to Analytics, on Wednesday, September 23, at 1:30 pm ET.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the launch of its new Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection. The collection makes freely accessible nearly 200,000 artifacts, including images, videos, letters, diaries, speeches, maps, diaries, and oral histories, from DPLA’s more than 4,000 partner institutions that document the contributions and experiences of Black women during the women’s suffrage movement as well as Black women’s activism from the 1850s to the 1960s.

We are pleased to invite you to Race, Power, and Curation, a virtual event celebrating the launch of our Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection, on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, from 1-2:30 pm ET.