The site is live but DPLA appears to just be the beginning.
An idea almost three years in the making, imagined first by the leaders of 42 of America’s top libraries and research institutions has now come to fruition. The Atlantic asked the project’s executive director a few questions. First off, what is it?:
The idea behind the Digital Public Library of America is fairly simple actually — it is the attempt, really a large-scale attempt, to knit together America’s archives, libraries, and museums, which have a tremendous amount of content — all forms of human expression, from images and photographs, to artwork, to published material and unpublished material, like archival and special collections. We want to bring that all together in one place.
But they also will not be limited by that one place, and the DPLA is eagerly building connections with related apps as well as with the physical spaces like libraries that they aim to complement, not compete with.
