There are no bricks, architect, or blueprint for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). But as John Palfrey, codirector of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says, the DPLA has built a strong foundation through a growing and vibrant community. The project, hatched in October 2010 by the Berkman Center, hopes to create a free, open, large-scale digital public library, with a launch by April 2013.
Palfrey spoke to librarians across the country about the DPLA yesterday at the ACRL Spring Virtual Institute.
The core of the design process involves discussion around five elements: code, metadata, content, tools and services, and community. The project will be open-source, with content including “everything: texts, books, artforms, cultural heritage records,” says Palfrey. “We’re starting extremely broad and will narrow it down.”
Possibly the most intriguing element involves tools and services, promoting ideas like the “Scannabago,” an RV-type vehicle outfitted with scanners and experts to assist small cultural institutions across the country in scanning their documents to upload into the library collection. “We could very well make an important contribution by virtue of making” the documents available, Palfrey says. Another service suggestion is to “focus on one or a series of iPad apps that could be used freely and shared broadly.”
The DPLA “takes inspiration from Wikipedia, very leanly staffed with tons of volunteers,” says Palfrey. More than a thousand participants have already joined in the workshops and virtual sessions, with a West Coast plenary session in San Francisco planned for April 26–27.
“This may feel like a utopian project,” Palfrey says. “If we don’t aim for what we want, we’ll sell ourselves short. We need to get in front of this mob and call it a parade.”