Events and Webinars
DPLA webinars are online learning opportunities highlighting subjects central to our community, such as education, metadata, technology, copyright, and more. These events are open to the public (registration required) and will be recorded unless otherwise noted. Questions? Email us.
Upcoming Events and Webinars
DPLA’s 2025 Kickoff
Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 1p ET
Join DPLA as we announce new initiatives for 2025 and beyond, and share how you can get involved. In 2025, DPLA will be rolling out new grant programs, as well as the first DPLAfest since the pandemic, and begin planning the transition of our cultural heritage work’s new home—and we will collaborate with our community to design and plan these exciting projects.
Our 2025 Kickoff is virtual, open to the public and all are invited to contribute, regardless of prior experience, institution, membership status, etc.
DPLA Network office hours
Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 2p ET
Every second Tuesday of the month, DPLA hosts open Network office hours time with our Director of Community Engagement, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt. This is a chance for informal conversation or to get questions answered, whether you have big strategy concerns, a technical aggregation issue, or just want to put a face to a name. We invite anyone who is interested—you could work for a hub, a contributing institution, or just want to learn more about DPLA. No need to pre-register! Simply click here to join via Zoom, or use these links to add it to your calendar for Google or Outlook.
Upcoming Office Hours:
- Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025 at 2p ET
- Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 at 2p ET
- Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2025 at 2p ET
- Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025 at 2p ET
- Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 2p ET
- Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2025 at 2p ET
Join our mailing list for announcements of future learning opportunities.
Member Webinars / Education / GIF-Making / Genealogy / Rights Statements / API
Past Events and Webinars
DPLA Coffee Chat! <dc:title>The ABC’s and 123’s of Metadata Sharing & Harvesting</dc:title>
Thursday, December 12, 2024, at 1p ET
Whether you can tell OAI-PMH from JSON at a glance or if this is your first metadata harvesting rodeo, the DPLA Outreach & Assessment Working Group invites you to join the Metadata Harvesting Coffee Chat! We’ll get together on Thursday, December 12 at 1:00pm EST to share experiences, build community, and commiserate about various metadata sharing methods. Please come with questions and thoughts to discuss with the group.
A recording of the webinar will be available soon.
Collaborating For Access: Does Digital Ownership Matter For Libraries?
Wednesday, October 16, 2024, at 1p ET
What if libraries could circulate ebooks the same way they circulate print books: one user at a time with the ability to transfer titles to other hosts and libraries as they see fit? Can this model, now offered by dozens of indie publishers to libraries nationwide, help us all better fulfill our missions in an increasingly digital space?
In this Collaborating for Access webinar, the eighth in an ongoing series presented by COSLA, DPLA and ReadersFirst, we will discuss the recent announcement by DPLA and Independent Publishers Group of their groundbreaking agreement that now allows libraries to own, rather than merely license, digital books they acquire through the Palace Marketplace. But how much does digital ownership really matter? Join us to learn more about the new model, discuss why it is vital for libraries to own the digital items they collect, explore how ownership could reshape library digital collecting, and think about the future of circulation services.
Moderator: Michael Blackwell, Director, St. Mary’s County Library
Speakers:
- Christina de Castell // Chief Librarian & CEO, Vancouver Public Library
- Micah May // Director of Ebook Services, Digital Public Library of America
- Michael Weinberg // Executive Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, New York University Law School
- Richard Williams // Vice President, Independent Publishers Group
DPLA Network office hours
Tuesday, September 10, 2024, at 2p ET
Every second Tuesday of the month, DPLA will host open Network office hours time with our Director of Community Engagement, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt. This is a chance for informal conversation or to get questions answered, whether you have big strategy concerns, a technical aggregation issue, or just want to put a face to a name. We invite anyone who is interested—you could work for a hub, a contributing institution, or just want to learn more about DPLA. No need to pre-register! Simply click here to join via Zoom, or use these links to add it to your calendar for Google or Outlook.
DPLA Network office hours
Tuesday, August 13, 2024, at 2p ET
Every second Tuesday of the month, DPLA will host open Network office hours time with our Director of Community Engagement, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt. This is a chance for informal conversation or to get questions answered, whether you have big strategy concerns, a technical aggregation issue, or just want to put a face to a name. We invite anyone who is interested—you could work for a hub, a contributing institution, or just want to learn more about DPLA. No need to pre-register! Simply click here to join via Zoom, or use these links to add it to your calendar for Google or Outlook.
Resourcefully Assessing: Critical Approaches to Assessment Series | D-CRAFT Toolkit — assessing use & reuse of digital collections
Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 1p ET
Join us to learn more about D-CRAFT (Digital Content Reuse Assessment Framework Toolkit)! Anyone working with digital collections at galleries, libraries, archives, museums, or repositories may find this session useful. Three members of the D-CRAFT project team will share project history and introduce the toolkit.
Presenters are:
- Ranti Junus // Systems Librarian, Electronic Resources, Michigan State University
- Ayla Stein Kenfield // Repository Services Librarian & Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Santi Thompson // Eva Digital Research Endowed Library Professor, University of Houston
Resourcefully Assessing: Critical Approaches to Assessment Series | Wikimedia Metrics and Tools
Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 1p ET
Please join the DPLA Wikimedia Working Group (WWG) for an overview of metrics and tracking tools across Wikimedia Platforms. Together we will look at metrics and tools from across Wikimedia while offering advice for institutions currently involved in, or looking to get involved in the DPLA Wikimedia Pipeline, and related Wikipedia work and editing. The presentation will cover pipeline metrics, the Wikimedia events dashboard and using it for event/edit tracking, article assessment tools, and tools on Wikimedia Commons. Additionally, we will briefly discuss new WMF tools that are being developed. Attendees will hear from individuals and institutions with first hand experience with these tools, and will offer insight and advice on how to best utilize them for your personal or institutional editing and content goals. We will close the session with time for Q&A and discussion.
Presenters:
- Rachel Helps // Wikipedian-in-residence at the Brigham Young University Library.
- Evan Robb is Digital Repository Librarian at the Washington State Library
- Christine Fernsebner Eslao // Metadata Technologies Program Manager at Harvard Library Information & Technical Services.
- Jamie Flood // Senior Wikipedian and Outreach Coordinator with the Agricultural Law Information Partnership at the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library
- Giovanna Fontenelle //Program Officer for the Culture and Heritage team at the Wikimedia Foundation.
Resources:
The presenters have provided the following links to tools mentioned in the talk:
- Wikimedia Commons Media contributed by DPLA
- MET Museum Report
- massviews analysis
- GLAMorgan
- GLAMorous
- Event Metrics
- Programs & Events Dashboard
- View it! Tool
- Item Quality Evaluator
- Integraality
- GLAM CSI project
- Commons Impact Metrics
DPLA Network office hours
Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 2p ET
Every second Tuesday of the month, DPLA will host open Network office hours time with our Director of Community Engagement, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt. This is a chance for informal conversation or to get questions answered, whether you have big strategy concerns, a technical aggregation issue, or just want to put a face to a name. We invite anyone who is interested—you could work for a hub, a contributing institution, or just want to learn more about DPLA. No need to pre-register! Simply click here to join via Zoom, or use these links to add it to your calendar for Google or Outlook.
DPLA Open Board + Community Meeting
Monday, July 8, 2024, at 2p ET
Join us on Monday, July 8, for our next Open Board + Community Meeting to hear all the latest from DPLA. This meeting will also feature a special conversation on AI in Libraries.
This Spring, DPLA convened a series of small group meetings about the use and future of artificial intelligence (AI) with library leaders, led by Benjamin Lee of the University of Washington’s Information School. We will hear from him and DC Public Library’s Meaghan O’Connor on what was learned and what comes next.
AI in Libraries, a Conversation
Speakers:
- Benjamin Lee // Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School
- Meaghan O’Connor // Director, Service Design & Engagement, DC Public Library
Resourcefully Assessing: Critical Approaches to Assessment Series | Quality Indicators for Open Educational Resources (OER)
Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 1p ET
Join us for our first event in the Resourcefully Assessing — Critical Approaches to Assessment series, hosted by the Outreach & Assessment working group. This series will explore a variety of assessment strategies for different resource and collection types. In this coffee chat, Joanna Schimizzi will discuss quality indicators for Open Educational Resources (OER). We’ll share example resources, rubrics, and templates that support you in finding and evaluating OER, with a focus on primary source sets. Part of the conversation will of course focus on student needs and on the opportunity to customize and localize resources to build robust sets of work.
Joanna Schimizzi is a Biology teacher in North Carolina and a Professional Learning Specialist with ISKME. While getting her Master’s in Education from Northeastern University, she became extremely interested in classroom culture and student identity. This led her to work with ISKME and OER Commons to support educators in finding Open Educational Resources (OER) so that resources can be modified and remixed to include a wider variety of perspectives and experiences. Joanna is mom to two boys and lives with her husband in a little town outside of Charlotte, NC.
DPLA Network office hours
Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at 2p ET
Every second Tuesday of the month, DPLA will host open Network office hours time with our Director of Community Engagement, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt. This is a chance for informal conversation or to get questions answered, whether you have big strategy concerns, a technical aggregation issue, or just want to put a face to a name. We invite anyone who is interested—you could work for a hub, a contributing institution, or just want to learn more about DPLA. No need to pre-register! Simply click here to join via Zoom, or use these links to add it to your calendar for Google or Outlook.
Reconciling Metadata with OpenRefine
Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at 1p ET
Does your metadata contain values that don’t align with controlled vocabularies commonly used in the GLAM sector? Learn how to reconcile metadata with OpenRefine, a popular data cleaning tool that can help you with metadata prep for DPLA. The Outreach & Assessment and Metadata Working Groups invite you to join this session, which builds upon February’s Introduction to OpenRefine presentation. Attendees will:
- Understand the basics of reconciliation with OpenRefine
- See examples of reconciliation with commonly used vocabularies such as the Art & Architecture Thesaurus™
- Get pointers on untangling data, such as removing duplicate values
This meeting will be led by Helen Baer, Digital Projects Librarian at Colorado State University, a member of the Plains to Peaks Collective. No software pre-installation will be required by participants. Please feel free to reach out to Helen if you have specific use cases or controlled vocabularies you’d like her to focus on at this event.
Introduction to Standardized Rights Statements
Thursday, May 23, 2024, at 2p ET
Curious about standardized rights statements? Standardized rights statements help increase access and reuse of your items. By providing rights in the form of a machine-readable URI, users can facet on rights in the DPLA interface and open access items can be shared by DPLA to Wikimedia Commons. Want to learn how to apply them to your digital collection?
Join the DPLA Rights Statements Working Group for an introduction to standardized rights statements. RightsStatements.org statements are a simple, standardized system of labels that more clearly communicate the copyright and re-use status of digital objects to the public. Adding these labels to your digital collections will improve usability and access for users. Presenters for this webinar will include members of the DPLA Rights Statements Working Group, many of whom are currently implementing rights statements for the collections they manage. They will share their expertise and experiences, as well as a wide range of resources for implementation.
Practical Approaches to Reparative Description Workshop Series: Special Projects in Reparative and Inclusive Description
Friday, May 10, 2024, at 1p ET
In this final workshop of the series, presenters will share how they approached description projects for special collections at their universities. Projects include: reparative description for Nazi publications identified in the collection, expanding access to electronic agricultural extension reports through non-English language subject headings, and applying content statements and strategies for graphic images/thumbnails.
Presenters
- Julie Moore, Special Collections Catalog Librarian, California State University, Fresno. Julie has been a catalog librarian in a variety of libraries and states for over 30 years. She is especially well-known for cataloging special formats (3-dimensional objects, in particular.) Her current research interest is in critical/inclusive/ethical/reparative cataloging. She was a Task Force member for OLAC Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs, Objects, Streaming Media, and Video Games and wrote a chapter in the upcoming publication, Inclusive Cataloging: Histories, Context, and Reparative Approaches (2024). Julie is the recipient of the Margaret Mann Citation (2020) and the OLAC Nancy B. Olson Award (2010).
- Vance Woods, Lead Cataloger, Cataloging and Government Documents Unit, Oregon State University Libraries and Press. Vance has a Master’s degree in church-state studies from Baylor University in Texas, with a focus on medieval Celtic history in the British Isles. He started as a special collections cataloger at Baylor in 2009, moving to Oregon State University in 2017 after an interim period in Argentina, where he grew up. He has extensive experience with original cataloging in many different formats, both physical and electronic, including rare and unique materials. He is an expert in languages, having worked with Baylor’s Keston Collection, comprised of materials from and about the former Soviet Union in a wide variety of languages, including several Cyrillic-based languages, and is fascinated by linguistics in the bibliographic field; it’s a passion he continues to develop at Oregon State. He has published in both scholarly and popular contexts, including a photographic history of Bates County, Missouri, his family’s ancestral home.
- Devon Murphy, The University of Texas at Austin. Devon Murphy (they/them) is a metadata and digital collections professional, currently working as the Metadata Analyst at the University of Texas at Austin. In this role, Murphy oversees standards, policies, and data models for the Libraries’ holdings. Murphy previously worked as the Metadata Librarian for Latin American Resources and as the TARO Metadata Analyst at UT Austin, and as a Getty Graduate Intern (2019-2020), creating Getty Vocabulary records and policies. They received dual masters degrees in Art History and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2019), examining information systems in art museums, including cataloging of Cherokee baskets by Native and non-Native institutions.
- Karina Sánchez, The University of Texas at Austin. Karina Sánchez (she/her) serves as the Scholars Lab Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is committed to advancing digital scholarship research through the innovative digital scholarship center, Scholars Lab. In her previous role as a Diversity Resident Librarian at UT Austin, she devoted time to developing workflows to improve the process of displaying and managing harmful content in libraries and special collections.
Practical Approaches to Reparative Description Workshop Series: Local Contexts: Tools for Supporting Indigenous Rights and Interests in Collections
Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 2p ET
Every Indigenous community has cultural and biological knowledge within educational systems, archives, libraries, and museums that they do not own, do not control, and cannot govern circulation over. Local Contexts is a global nonprofit organization that was founded to address the needs of Indigenous communities and local organizations who wanted a practical method to deal with the range of intellectual property issues that arise in relation to managing cultural heritage materials. The Local Contexts Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels and Notices are tools for Indigenous communities and collections- and research-based institutions to support Indigenous cultural authority and data sovereignty. In this webinar, which is being hosted by the DPLA Rights Statements Working Group, the Local Contexts team will introduce the Labels and Notices and how they can be used to support Indigenous rights and interests in collections and data.
Presenters
- Dr. Stephany RunningHawk Johnson is a Citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and the Local Contexts Founding Executive Director. Stephany was previously an Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education at Washington State University. Her scholarship examines the limitations and possibilities of decolonizing approaches to science education in schools, and explores how changes in educational policy and practice that center Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing have a positive impact.
- Corrie Roe is the Local Contexts Director of Outreach and Strategy. In her role, Corrie supports Indigenous communities, institutions, and researchers to learn about and adopt the Local Contexts system. Corrie is a settler living on Paugussett and Wappinger Homelands with a background in anthropology and museum studies.
- Emily Santhanam is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and the Local Contexts Outreach Coordinator (Americas). Within this role, Emily supports multifaceted outreach efforts by cultivating and sustaining Local Contexts’ network of Indigenous communities, institutions, and researchers. Prior to her involvement with Local Contexts, Emily worked in multiple curatorial and research capacities for cultural organizations and museums across the country.
DPLA Open Board + Community Meeting
Monday, April 22, 2024, at 2p ET
Join us on Monday, April 22, for our next Open Board + Community Meeting to hear all the latest from DPLA and more about what’s coming next.
Practical Approaches to Reparative Description Workshop Series: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Metadata
Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 1p ET
Capturing information about gender and sexuality in descriptive metadata often surfaces questions and unique considerations about how to effectively maximize exposure of diverse collections without mislabeling or putting members of vulnerable communities at increased risk. At this presentation, attendees will hear a variety of perspectives on strategies for how to approach the capture of this information, as well as how to implement existing resources to help enhance collection metadata.
Presenters:
- As University of Washington’s Special Collections Digital Collections Curator, Ann Lally is involved in the processing and arrangement of incoming digital materials as well as curation and quality assurance of the web archiving program. Ann has been working at the UW with digital projects as a project manager, consultant, and active participant since 2003. Ann has been an active participant in local and regional metadata and usability initiatives. Before coming to the UW, Ann worked as the Associate Director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
- Bri Watson (@brimwats) is a disabled, white, queer & nonbinary settler living in Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish. They are currently a Vanier Scholar at University of British Columbia’s iSchool focusing on histories of information and the practice of equitable cataloging in libraries, archives, museums, and special collections. Watson is the Archivist-Historian of the American Psychological Association’s Consensual Nonmonogamy Committee (div44cnm.org) and the Haslam Collection on Polyamory at the Kinsey Institute. They serve on the editorial board of Homosaurus (homosaurus.org), an international linked data vocabulary for queer terminology.
- Michael L. Stewart (they/them) is a Metadata Librarian at the University of Delaware and the Metadata Specialist for the NJ/DE Digital Collective, a regional hub of DPLA. They currently serve as the chair of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging’s (PCC) Task Group on Gender (TGOG), as well as in a liaison role from this group to the PCC’s Task Group on Privacy in Name Authority Records.
IndieLib Forum
Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio
We hope you’ll join us for the inaugural IndieLib Forum, an exciting new event that will bring together libraries and independent publishers.
In recent months, DPLA has been working closely with the Independent Publishers Caucus to explore ways we can work together to expand access for patrons.
To further this work, we will co-host IndieLib Forum, a gathering of librarians and indie publishers, on April 2, in Columbus, Ohio, the day before the start of PLA 2024.
We hope you will join us for this inaugural event, which will feature:
- A “Fast Pitch” speed-dating style breakfast during which small groups of librarians will hear from select indie publishers about their best titles
- Keynote address by scholar and economist Rebecca Giblin, author of Chokepoint Capitalism
- Panel discussions exploring collection development, the ebook licensing landscape, readers’ advisory, and big-picture issues related to publishing and libraries
- Networking opportunities at lunch and happy hour.
Hope to see you there!
If you were not able to make it, please read our event recap.
DPLA at PLA: Unbannable: How Libraries Are Ensuring Access to Banned Books
Thursday, April 4, at 10:15am (at PLA 2024 in Columbus, Ohio)
With book banning on the rise nationwide and intellectual freedom under attack, find out how library-driven projects, Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned, Chicago Public Library’s Book Sanctuary, the Digital Public Library of America’s Banned Book Club, and the New York Public Library’s work are pushing back against book banning and protecting critical access to knowledge for all. Get an overview of how each project works and find out how your library can defend intellectual freedom.
Panelists will include:
Chris Brown, Commissioner, Chicago Public Library
Nick Higgins, Chief Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library
Micah May, Director of Ebook Services, DPLA
Kelvin Watson, Executive Director, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District
See the full PLA schedule here.
Crowdsourcing the Archives: An Introduction to the National Archives Citizen Archivist Program
March 14, 2024
In this presentation, National Archives Catalog Community Managers Nancy Sullivan and Suzanne Isaacs will introduce the National Archives’ Citizen Archivist program. They will demonstrate how volunteers can transcribe, tag, and comment on records in the National Archives Catalog. Nancy and Suzanne will highlight the Revolutionary War Pension File Project, a multi-year partnership project with the National Park Service.
Watch the recording here. Please note: Due to technical difficulties, this recording cuts off before the end of the session. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Introduction to OpenRefine
Tuesday, February 7, 2024
Curious about OpenRefine? Wondering how this popular data-cleaning tool can help you streamline your DPLA metadata workflows? On February 7, 2024, the Outreach and Assessment and Metadata Working Groups for an introduction to OpenRefine. The session was led by Helen Baer, Digital Projects Librarian at Colorado State University, a member of the Plains to Peaks Collective.
Collaborating for Access: Libraries and Independent Authors
Thursday, February 1, 2024
At our seventh in the Collaborating for Access series of webinars presented by COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst, we looked at ways libraries can drive discovery of and benefit from the inclusion of self-published titles in their collections. Highlights included a look at the Indie Author Project, the Indie Catalog Selection in Palace Marketplace, and insights from library leaders and independent authors themselves.
DPLA Coffee Chat: Metadata Best Practices Report
Thursday, November 16, 2023
In 2022-2023, the Metadata Working Group analyzed metadata guidelines and best practices across hubs, summarizing them in the Metadata Best Practices Report. The Report included a list of recommendations, which was then distributed to the hubs network for their input to help inform the direction of our future work. Please join us to discuss the Report and how we might use the findings to improve metadata practices across DPLA hubs.
Teaching and Learning with DPLA Resources
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Are you “hungry” for resources that will inspire rich discussion in your classes? On October 26, 2023, the DPLA Outreach & Assessment Working Group and Joanna Schimizzi explored the Primary Source Sets from DPLA, including this example – “Feeding the Hungry with Food Stamp Programs.” In this session, we chatted about the structure of the existing Primary Source Sets and used framing questions to see what might be missing. Joanna provided an OER Commons template to curate additional resources and we provided feedback on what else could enrich these sets. (This OER Commons link is helpful for this session.)
Joanna Schimizzi is a Biology teacher in North Carolina and a Professional Learning Specialist with ISKME. While getting her Master’s in Education from Northeastern University, she became extremely interested in classroom culture and student identity. This led her to work with ISKME and OER Commons to support educators in finding Open Educational Resources (OER) so that resources can be modified and remixed to include a wider variety of perspectives and experiences. Joanna is mom to two boys and lives with her husband in a little town outside of Charlotte, NC.
DPLA Coffee Chat: A Wikimedia Case Study: Columbus Metropolitan Library and Ohio Digital Network
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
In this DPLA Network Coffee Chat, representatives from the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), Ohio Digital Network, and DPLA discussed their recent collaboration to share over 350,000 images from CML’s digital collections to Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia in July. In the first two months, these images received over 3 million page views in Wikimedia’s sites. The project relied upon Ohio Digital Network aggregation and Digital Public Library of America’s pipeline to Wikimedia Commons and was initiated after an inquiry from an interested member of the library’s community. This is a new, developing project, and we discussed how it has unfolded from inception to final execution, to give others a sense of what participation in DPLA’s Wikimedia project is like.
DPLA Coffee Chat: Curating Digital Content
Thursday, October 19, 2023
DPLA Digital Curation Task Force representatives shared their work to create guideline documentation for digital curation with content from the DPLA Hubs. Along with the guidelines, they covered tactics, challenges, successes, and examples of digital curation work within our hubs and within the larger work of cultural heritage institutions.
Helpful resources for this meeting include our digital curation guidelines and our digital curation matrix.
DPLA Open Board + Community Meeting
Monday, October 16, at 2p ET
At our October Open Board + Community meeting, we shared updates on what DPLA’s been up to this fall, including a report from Sarah Lutman of 8 Bridges Workshop on what she’s heard from her interviews with 3 dozen field leaders about our digital aggregation work.
Collaborating for Access: Librarians and Independent Publishers
Thursday, October 5, 2023
What do librarians REALLY want from publishers, and how can smaller and independent publishers create a better ecosystem? In our sixth Collaborating for Access webinar, COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst are partnering with the Independent Publisher Caucus to bring together librarians and smaller and independent publishers to explore how they can work together to provide greater access for patrons. Topics will include: Opportunities for independent publishers in the library market; licensing options that are most attractive to libraries; and ways that libraries and independent publishers can work together to mutual benefit.
Introducing the Banned Book Club
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
On Tuesday, August 8, 2023, we held the first in a series of events around the launch of The Banned Book Club. We talked about the development of the project and its roots in our mission of free access to knowledge; heard more about the most frequently targeted content from our colleagues at PEN America and EveryLibrary and from librarians about how projects like this can be utilized to ensure readers can access the books they want to read.
Book Talk: Recoding America, with author Jennifer Pahlka in conversation with Lilian Coral
Monday, July 24, 2023
On July 24, 2023, we hosted author Jennifer Pahlka to talk about her important new book, Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Pahlka will be joined by Lilian Coral, Senior Director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) and Head of Technology and Democracy Programs at New America.
Book Talk: Burning the Books, with author Richard Ovenden
Monday, June 5, 2023
On June 5, 2023, we hosted a book talk with author Richard Ovenden, director of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, about his book, Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. Ovenden was joined by former DPLA board member, film producer, journalist, and Plympton co-founder Jennifer 8. Lee.
Collaborating for Access: Digital Success Stories
February 7, 2023
With libraries across the country striving to deliver robust and cost-effective digital content offerings to patrons, the fifth in our series of Collaborating for Access webinars, presented with COSLA and ReadersFirst, looked at digital access success stories. We’ll hear short presentations from a variety of our colleagues who have found innovative ways to increase access for patrons, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Michael Blackwell of ReadersFirst.
Speakers include:
Lila Bailey, Internet Archive
Brad Bullis, Connecticut State Library
Maria Bustillos, Popula
Anne Fonteneau, Blackstone Publishing
Jamie Joyce, Internet Archive
Amy Mikel, Brooklyn Public Library
Miriam Tuliao & Georgia Westbrook, DPLA Curation Corps
Palace 101: An Introduction to The Palace Project
In January 2023, The Palace Project team and librarians using the platform presented a webinar on The Palace Project app: what it is, how it works, and how librarians across the country are using it to increase access for patrons and maximize their acquisition budgets. The recording includes a walk-through of the patron-facing app; the unique licensing models and content available in Palace Marketplace; the free open-access Palace Bookshelf collection; as well as implementation, hosting, and real-world examples from Palace libraries about how they are using and marketing Palace to their communities.
The Palace Project app and platform is a new way for libraries to purchase, manage, and deliver e-content to readers. Funded by a $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Palace Project is a division of Lyrasis working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Find out more at thepalaceproject.org.
Speakers:
Migell Acosta, Library Director, San Diego County Library
Michele Kimpton, Global Senior Director, The Palace Project
Micah May, Director of Ebook Services, DPLA
Stephen Spohn, Executive Director, Ocean State Libraries
DPLA’s ebook work is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
DPLA Open Board + Community Meeting: Leveraging the Power of Wikimedia
January 9, 2023
At our first Open Board + Community meeting of 2023, we talked about the recently announced growth of our Wikimedia work, and heard from representatives from Wikimedia and the DPLA community about the vast potential of Wikimedia and Wikipedia to dramatically increase the visibility and use of library collections.
Speakers included:
John Bracken, Executive Director, DPLA
Dominic Byrd-McDevitt, Data Fellow, DPLA
Michael Della Bitta, Director of Technology, DPLA
Leigh Jeremias, Digital Collections Coordinator, Colorado Virtual Library and Plains to Peaks Collective
Ben Vershbow, Director, Community Programs, Wikimedia Foundation
Shaneé Yvette Willis, Director of Community Engagement, DPLA
Curated Digital Content: Tools for Teaching
November 1, 2022
The Outreach and Accessibility Working Group of DPLA presented “Curated Digital Content: Tools for Teaching.” Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) Metadata Librarian Greta Bahnemann presented an overview of digital content resources that she has developed for MDL, including the Primary Source Set program (modeled after DPLA’s Primary Source Sets) and the exhibit “History Day Resources” which provides teachers, students, and parents with information about the National History Day program. She also highlighted DPLA resources that are relevant to digital content research and shared ideas on how educators and students can find, save, and share content for projects in the classroom.
As Metadata Librarian for the Minnesota Digital Library, Greta’s work encompasses both metadata initiatives and projects that enhance the user experience. She is currently the co-lead on MDL’s Traditional Knowledge Label project. Previously, Greta served on the DPLA Metadata Working Group (2018-2022) and was both a co-chair and instructor with the Summer Educational Institute program. Prior to working with the Minnesota Digital Library, she was Curator at the Knight Visual Resources Center at Cornell University. She holds an undergraduate degree in history and art history from the University of Minnesota, Morris, an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in American Culture, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
A recording is available here.
DPLA Book Talk: Brown Neon, with author Raquel Gutiérrez and Lou Cornum
October 18, 2022
On October 18, 2022, DPLA welcomed author Raquel Gutiérrez for a conversation with Lou Cornum about Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection, Brown Neon.
Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection Brown Neon gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, highlighting the feminist wounding and transphobic apparitions haunting the multi-generational lesbian social fabric, or recalling a failed romance, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance.
DPLA Member Meet Up: Digital Readiness Toolkit, hosted by Recollection Wisconsin
September 29, 2022
This DPLA Member Meet Up, hosted by Recollection Wisconsin, introduce our community to Recollection Wisconsin’s recently released Digital Readiness Toolkit. This set of tools, guidelines, examples, templates, and other resources is a complete guide to tending a digital collection, designed specifically for the needs of small cultural heritage institutions. Representatives from Recollection Wisconsin walked us through the toolkit, shared some examples and insights about how it can be used and shared, and answered questions.
Collaborating for Access: The Outlook for Library Ebook Legislation, presented by COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst
September 27, 2022
In the fourth in our Collaborating for Access series of webinars hosted by COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst, we looked at the recent push for ebook legislation, and what it could mean for patron access to digital content.
Speakers:
Kyle Courtney, Copyright Advisor, Harvard University and Co-founder and Board Chair, Library Futures
Alan Inouye, Senior Director, Public Policy and Government Relations, ALA
Briana McNamee, Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, New York Library Association
Irene Padilla, Maryland State Librarian
Moderated by Michael Blackwell, ReadersFirst
DPLA + the MIT Press Book Talk: Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly with author Emily West
September 14, 2022
In the third of our Book Talks with the MIT Press, we hosted author Emily West in conversation with Cindy Aden, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Information School at the University of Washington. They discussed West’s book Buy Now, which explores how Amazon combined branding and relationship marketing with massive distribution infrastructure to become the ultimate service brand in the digital economy.
DPLA Digital Equity Project Information Session
July 19, 2022
DPLA is beginning a three-year Digital Equity Project, which will become the basis for how DPLA approaches support of community archival projects in the future and will have the potential to broadly inform practices throughout the field.
Over the next three years, DPLA, thanks to support from the Mellon Foundation, will invest in community-based and community-serving partners to increase their capacity to lead high-impact projects that advance racial justice in their work. DPLA will provide grants for underrepresented, under-resourced archives and create network-building opportunities to ensure these organizations can become equal participants in sharing historic collections.
The Digital Equity Project will support 7-8 community archival projects through 1) providing subgrants for Digital Capacity Building Projects; and 2) forming a Community of Practice through which DPLA and the collective of subgrant recipients will build relationships, share knowledge, develop solutions to common problems, and grow our collective capacity.
At The Digital Equity Project: Advancing Racial Justice in American Archives Project Information Session, we shared the early-stage plans for this work.
DPLA + the MIT Press Book Talk: Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work, with author Ruchika Tulshyan
July 13, 2022
In the second of our series of Book Talks with the MIT Press, moderator Jenny 8. Lee will talk with author Ruchika Tulshyan about her transformational approach to organizational inclusion.
Few would disagree that inclusion is both the right thing to do and good for business. Then why are we so terrible at it? If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don’t we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don’t realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Inclusion doesn’t just happen; we have to work at it. Tulshyan presents inclusion best practices, showing how leaders and organizations can meaningfully promote inclusion and diversity.
Tulshyan centers the workplace experience of women of color, who are subject to both gender and racial bias. It is at the intersection of gender and race, she shows, that we discover the kind of inclusion policies that benefit all. Tulshyan debunks the idea of the “level playing field” and explains how leaders and organizations can use their privilege for good by identifying and exposing bias, knowing that they typically have less to lose in speaking up than a woman of color does. She explains why “leaning in” doesn’t work—and dismantling structural bias does; warns against hiring for “culture fit,” arguing for “culture add” instead; and emphasizes the importance of psychological safety in the workplace—you need to know that your organization has your back. With this important book, Tulshyan shows us how we can make progress toward inclusion and diversity—and we must start now.
DPLA Member Meet-Up: DPLA Metadata Quality Guidelines Revisited
June 29, 2022
At this DPLA Member Meet Up, the DPLA Metadata Working Group (MWG) discussed our most recent project, an updated version of the DPLA metadata quality guidelines and whether the Network and DPLA staff believe the MWG charge meets their expectations and addresses future DPLA plans. We also talked about potential future projects.
DPLA + The MIT Press Book Talk: The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight with Alexander Monea
DPLA and The MIT Press kicked off our new series of Book Talks with The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight with Alexander Monea.
In The Digital Closet, Monea argues provocatively that the internet became straight by suppressing everything that is not, forcing LGBTQIA+ content into increasingly narrow channels—rendering it invisible through opaque algorithms, automated and human content moderation, warped keywords, and other strategies of digital overreach. Monea explains how the United States’ thirty-year “war on porn” has brought about the over-regulation of sexual content, which, in turn, has resulted in the censorship of much nonpornographic content—including material on sex education and LGBTQ+ activism. In this wide-ranging, enlightening account, Monea examines the cultural, technological, and political conditions that put LGBTQ+ content into the closet.
Monea looks at the anti-porn activism of the alt-right, Christian conservatives, and anti-porn feminists, who became strange bedfellows in the politics of pornography; investigates the coders, code, and moderators whose work serves to reify heteronormativity; and explores the collateral damage in the ongoing war on porn—the censorship of LGBTQ+ community resources, sex education materials, art, literature, and other content that engages with sexuality but would rarely be categorized as pornography by today’s community standards. Finally, he examines the internet architectures responsible for the heteronormalization of porn: Google Safe Search and the data structures of tube sites and other porn platforms.
Monea reveals the porn industry’s deepest, darkest secret: porn is boring. Mainstream porn is stuck in a heteronormative filter bubble, limited to the same heteronormative tropes, tagged by the same heteronormative keywords. This heteronormativity is mirrored by the algorithms meant to filter pornographic content, increasingly filtering out all LGBTQIA+ content. Everyone suffers from this forced heteronormativity of the internet—suffering, Monea suggests, that could be alleviated by queering straightness and introducing feminism to dissipate the misogyny.
This book talk was moderated by Angel Ysaguirre, executive director of the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago.
Collaborating for Access: Book Challenges in a Digital World
June 7, 2022
In this third in our Collaborating for Access series of webinars hosted by COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst, we looked at what the current political environment of increased book challenges means for digital content. What opportunities are available for libraries to use digital materials to maintain access, and in what ways are digital content and the libraries providing it open to unique attacks across the political spectrum? A panel of librarians and thought leaders discussed the ramifications of challenges in the digital world and look at potential solutions digital access may provide.
Speakers included:
Kathleen Riegelhaupt, Director, eReading, The New York Public Library
Christian Shroll, Director, Bracken County Public Library (KY)
Mary Soucie, North Dakota State Librarian
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association
Moderated by Michael Blackwell, ReadersFirst
Researching Genealogy with DPLA Resources, Part 2
May 25, 2022
The Outreach and Accessibility Working Group of DPLA was excited to present part two to April 2021’s Genealogy webinar. Our working group reviewed the most asked questions about records and searching in DPLA and Allison Ryall provided a diverse range of examples using available primary source sets found in DPLA. Attendees became familiar with the various DPLA resources that are relevant to genealogy research and gained insight into genealogical search strategies.
Allison Ryall is the Genealogy Specialist for the Orange County Library System (OCLS) and an instructor in Boston University’s Genealogical Research Program. In addition, Allison works with a variety of law enforcement agencies assisting them in solving cold case violent crimes using genetic genealogy. Previously, Allison worked with the National Genealogical Society as their Advertising and Marketing Manager and Graphic Designer and served as a grader for the National Genealogical Society’s Home Study Course. Allison also served as the conference tri-chair, program chair, and Ancestors Road Show Chair for the New England Regional Genealogical Conference and as the conference chair for the Association for Professional Genealogist’s annual conference. Prior to pursuing her passion for genealogy, Allison was a media executive and has extensive experience in the areas of research, media relations, program management, and marketing. She holds degrees in U.S. History and Russian Studies and a master’s degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine.
Collaborating for Access: Creating More Inclusive Ebooks
April 12, 2022
In this second in our Collaborating for Access series of webinars hosted by COSLA, DPLA, and ReadersFirst, we’ll bring together a variety of experts and thought leaders to discuss the potential to bring easy, enjoyable reading experiences to all through the development of more inclusive ebook design. What might a truly inclusive ebook look like, and how can we all work together to bring forth a future of reading that is truly accessible to everyone?
Jason Broughton, National Library Service Director, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled
Darren DeFrain, Ph.D., Co-creator, Vizling App and Wichita State University
Reginé Gilbert, User Experience Designer and Author, Inclusive Design for a Digital World
Aaron Rodriguez, Co-creator, Vizling App and Ph.D. student, Florida State University
Moderated by Michael Blackwell of ReadersFirst
Please note that technical difficulties have prevented us from sharing a recording of this webinar.
DPLA Member Brown Bag
Escaping Our Fishbowl: A Case Study on Expanding Participation by the Connecticut Digital Archive
February 10, 2022
The Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA) is the DPLA Service Hub for Connecticut. Recently we conducted a self-examination of the CTDA and an analysis of its peers in the Hub network to discover where we inadvertently limited our value to typically underrepresented groups. Our research findings tended to confirm our anecdotal ideas about how the Hubs in general and the CTDA in particular interacted with and served current and potential participants. From our analysis we came up with a four-point program for change in ourselves, some parts of which may surprise you. In this brown bag we presented our research findings and began a discussion about the role of Hubs in opening the field to include non-customary participants.
Speakers included:
Greg Colati, CTDA
Mike Kemezis, CT Humanities
Rachael Nutt, Syracuse University
Heather Owen, Syracuse University
DPLA Member Brown Bag
Accessibility and Harmful Content Statements: Analyzing Lexile Levels
February 3, 2022
In this brown bag, Sheila McAlister, director of the Digital Library of Georgia, and Nicole Lawrence, DLG assistant director and co-chair of the DPLA Metadata Working Group, will discuss how the DLG crafted its harmful content statement to be easily understandable by the general public. The speakers will discuss the methods DLG used to simplify the statement’s language and plans to make public-facing text clearer.
Pan Am Aviation Portal Launch Event
January 26, 2022
Duke University, HistoryMiami Museum, University of Miami Libraries, and DPLA were awarded a “Digitizing Hidden Collections” grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize some of their holdings of Pan American World Airways. The project culminated in the creation of the first-ever commercial aviation portal in DPLA. Guest speakers Julia Cooke, author of Come Fly the World and John Luetich from the Pan Am Museum joined this presentation.
ReadersFirst, COSLA and DPLA Present: Collaborating for Access: Licensing Models that Benefit Readers, Libraries, and Publishers
January 19, 2022
On January 19, 2022, at 1 pm ET COSLA (Chief Officers of State Library Agencies), Digital Public Library of America, and ReadersFirst partnered to present Collaborating for Access: Licensing Models that Benefit Readers, Libraries, and Publishers. We brought together library leaders and publishers to talk about the current ebook landscape and discuss publishing models that work for libraries, publishers, and readers and help further equitable access to ebooks.
Speakers:
Michael Blackwell, Director, St. Mary’s County Library and ReadersFirst
Mallori Bontrager, Digital Services Manager, Independent Publishers Group
Charles A. Sherrill, Tennessee State Librarian and Archivist
Adam Silverman, Senior Director, Digital Business Development, HarperCollins Publishers
Kelvin Watson, Executive Director, Las Vegas – Clark County Library District, DPLA board member
Book Talk: Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet
On Thursday, December 9, at 11 am ET, Digital Public Library of America partnered with Unfinished, a new organization dedicated to strengthening civic life in the digital age, for a live, virtual book club event. Author Tim Hwang joined us for an engaging conversation about his book Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet, which investigates the Wild West that is the online programmatic ad industry. Hwang calls it the “beating heart of the internet”—one that’s increasingly vulnerable thanks to a set of structural failures that call to mind the housing bubble of 2008.
The conversation was led by Unfinished Media Editor in Chief Damon Beres, with an introduction by DPLA Executive Director John Bracken.
Addressing Health Misinformation with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2021
On Tuesday, November 9 we will join with Knight Foundation to host a virtual discussion on health misinformation with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy. This timely meeting — featuring library, civic, philanthropic, and health leaders — will focus on community-based solutions to address health misinformation, which Dr. Murthy calls a “serious threat to public health.”
Dr. Murthy announced the second installment of his office’s efforts to combat health misinformation with the launch of a community toolkit for addressing health misinformation. The toolkit provides guidance to understand, identify, and stop the spread of health misinformation in communities, including summaries, illustrations, short activities, and helpful tips.
We believe that bringing together librarians, educators, community, and health leaders is important to help tackle the proliferation of misinformation during the pandemic. That’s why we’re co-hosting this second event, as part of the annual Knight Library Directors convening, to bring together these key stakeholders to discuss important issues and the digital transformation of our libraries.
Following the conversation with Dr. Murthy, you’ll learn how you can use the toolkit to help combat the spread of health misinformation in your communities.
Book Talk: The State Must Provide with Adam Harris
Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2021
DPLA’s October 2021 Book Talk featured Adam Harris, a staff writer at The Atlantic covering national politics and a National Fellow at New America. We talked about his book The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal–and How to Set Them Right, a narrative history of racial inequality higher in education. This book talk was moderated by Marcia Walker-McWilliams, DPLA board member and executive director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, and Adam Bush, co-founder and provost of College Unbound.
DPLA Genealogy Webinar
Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Join us for a one-hour informational genealogy webinar using DPLA resources, presented by the Outreach and Accessibility working group and Allison Ryall, Genealogy Specialist for the Orange County Library System. The webinar will cover some DPLA basics, such as search techniques and a metadata overview, as well as genealogy tips and tricks. Allison will provide several case studies using DPLA resources and highlighting how to navigate DPLA’s collection and use available primary source sets. Attendees will become familiar with the various DPLA resources that are relevant to genealogy research and will gain insight in genealogical search strategies.
Allison Ryall is the Genealogy Specialist for the Orange County Library System (OCLS) and an instructor in Boston University’s Genealogical Research Program. In addition, Allison works with a variety of law enforcement agencies assisting them in solving cold case violent crimes using genetic genealogy. Previously, Allison worked with the National Genealogical Society as their Advertising and Marketing Manager and Graphic Designer and served as a grader for the National Genealogical Society’s Home Study Course. Allison also served as the conference tri-chair, program chair, and Ancestors Road Show Chair for the New England Regional Genealogical Conference and as the conference chair for the Association for Professional Genealogist’s annual conference.
Prior to pursuing her passion for genealogy, Allison was a media executive and has extensive experience in the areas of research, media relations, program management, and marketing. She holds degrees in U.S. History and Russian Studies and a master’s degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine.
DPLA+ Wikimedia: One Year In + Ten Million Views
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2021
Over the last year, DPLA has worked with eight partners, representing more than 200 contributing institutions, to add more than 1.4 million image files of photos, documents, and maps to the Wikimedia Commons digital asset management platform, resulting in more than 10 million new views of these items through inclusion on just about 1,000 Wikipedia article pages—in the first year of the project alone. In this session, we’ll discuss the work DPLA has done to give institutions a pathway to contribute assets to Wikimedia and steps DPLA hubs and institutions can take to get involved with this work, as well as how Wikimedia can be a valuable tool for exponentially increasing discovery and use of archival collections. Speakers will include Leigh Jeremias, Digital Collections Coordinator at the Colorado State Library, who coordinates the Plains to Peaks Collective; Effie Kapsalis, Senior Program Officer for Digital Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution; and DPLA Data Fellow Dominic Byrd-McDevitt.
SimplyE and Digital Resource Solutions for the Second Wave
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Hosts: Co-presented by EveryLibrary Institute and DPLA
Digital Public Library of America and its partners from Brooklyn Public Library and Alameda County Library will provide an overview of SimplyE, the only e-reading platform built by libraries for libraries, and the DPLA free ebook offering and marketplace. The webinar will include a demonstration of SimplyE, an overview of its benefits to libraries and their patrons; a report from BPL about how SimplyE has been deployed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to increase access; and from Alameda County about how they work with DPLA to provide quality titles to their patrons. The webinar will focus on how libraries can roll out the platform and how getting involved can advance the mission of libraries and improve access for all Americans.
From Black Women’s Suffrage to Black Lives Matter: A Living Legacy
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2020
This webinar, presented in collaboration with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, will examine the legacy of Black Women’s early activism and its connections to the present moment. It will include presentations on voting stories and links to the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as how Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is collecting African American COVID-19 experiences for archiving and using Wikimedia to surface materials relevant to their community.
Speakers:
- Dominic Byrd-McDevitt, DPLA Data Fellow
- Danté Nicole Miller, Community Editor for WFAE/Charlotte Mecklenburg Library/Digital Public Library of America via Report for America
- Shaneé Yvette Murrain, DPLA Community Manager
- Hannah Terrell, Branch Leader, Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
- Alexandra Watts, Reporter, WFAE
- Catherine Welch, Assistant News Director, WFAE
- Martha Yesowitch, Community Partnerships Leader, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
View the slides here and here.
Member Webinar: Guide to Analytics
Date: Wednesday, September 23 at 1:30pm ET
This webinar, intended for representatives of DPLA member hubs, is presented by the DPLA Assessment Working Group. Members of the working group will present the results of the Assessment Working Group’s 2019 survey of hub and sub-hub managers that gauged the impact and usefulness of DPLA assessment tools. They will also provide insight on how best to use Google Analytics and the DPLA Analytics Dashboard with a practical walk-through of these assessment tools. Additionally, working group members will address topics such as collections gap analysis and metadata completeness with a look at specific hub activities.
Race, Power, and Curation: Launching the Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2020
The event featured a keynote by Dorothy Berry, the Digital Collections Program Manager at Houghton Library, Harvard University, on the importance of curating Black Collections and centering Black Stories intentionally during this transitory period of American history. In addition, Elaine L. Westbrooks, DPLA board member and Vice Provost of University Libraries and University Librarian at UNC-Chapel Hill, will provide opening remarks on the impact of curatorial choices, and Yusef Omowale of the Southern California Digital Library will join us to talk about digitizing the Charlotta Bass papers. DPLA Community Manager Shaneé Yvette Murrain will discuss the process of building the Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection and give a demonstration of the new website and members of DPLA’s Metadata Working Group will describe the creation of a Harmful Content Statement.
Standardized Rights Statements 101
Date: July 22, 2020
Curious about standardized rights statements? Want to learn how to apply them to your digital collection? Join the DPLA Rights Statements Working Group for Standardized Rights Statements 101. RightsStatements.org statements are a simple, standardized system of labels that more clearly communicate the copyright and re-use status of digital objects to the public. Adding these labels to your digital collections will improve usability and access for users. Presenters for this webinar will include members of the DPLA Rights Statements Working Group, many of whom are currently implementing rights statements for the collections they manage. They will share their expertise and experiences, as well as a wide range of resources for implementation.
Presenters:
Shaneé Yvette Murrain, Digital Public Library of America
Julia Simic, Assistant Head, Digital Scholarship Services, University of Oregon Libraries
Greg Cram, Director of Copyright, Permissions, and Information Policy, New York Public Library
Wendy Gogel, Manager of Digital Content and Projects, Harvard Library
Gabe Galson, Technology Projects Librarian, Temple University Libraries
Molly Huber, Outreach Coordinator, Minnesota Digital Library, University of Minnesota
Race, Gender, Politics, and History: Reconstructing Visibility of Black Women’s Activism
Date: July 16, 2020
In commemoration of journalist, suffragist, and anti-lynching and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s birthday, we will host a community gathering introducing our forthcoming Black Women’s Suffrage collection. The event will feature a keynote by historian Allison Robinson about teaching with digital exhibits, her experience working with the university’s Ida B. Wells collection, and how digital artifacts can help reconstruct visibility. Some of our partners will also introduce the collections that they are digitizing as part of the Black Women’s Suffrage collection and provide some perspective about how these artifacts can help us better understand Black women suffragists and the historical and continuing activism of Black women.
Speakers:
Keynote: Allison Robinson, Doctoral Candidate in American History and American Material Culture, and Instructor at the University of Chicago
Dana Chandler, University Archivist and Associate Professor, Tuskegee University Archives
Christopher Harter, Deputy Director, Amistad Research Center
Aaisha Haykal, Manager of Archival Services, Avery Center for African American History & Culture at the College of Charleston
Sarah Tanner, Head, Archives Research Center, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Collaborating for Literacy: Exploring Licensing Models that Work for Libraries, Creators, and Readers
Date: July 9, 2020
Presenters:
- Cindy Altick Aden, Washington State Librarian
- Mallori Bontrager, Digital Services Manager, Independent Publishers Group
- John Bracken, Digital Public Library of America
- Michele Kimpton, Digital Public Library of America
- Andrew Medlar, Director, BookOps, The New York Public Library & Brooklyn Public Library
- Lisa Peet, News Editor, Library Journal
- Adam Silverman, Senior Director, Business Development, HarperCollins
- Kelvin Watson, Director, Broward County Libraries
Introduction to SimplyE
Date: April 29, 2020
Presenters: Michele Kimpton, DPLA; Brian Bannon, New York Public Library; Micah May, DPLA; Carissa Egan, Lyrasis; Michael Blackwell, St. Mary’s County Library; Brad Bullis, Connecticut State Library.
View slides. Watch the recording.
DPLA Introduction to Wikimedia: Increased Discoverability & Use
Date: April 21, 2020
Presenters: Dominic Byrd-McDevitt, DPLA Data Fellow & Sandra Fauconnier GLAM-Wiki Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation
View slides. Watch the recording.
Crowdfunding and Community Engagement: Introduction to Kickstarter for Libraries
Date: February 28, 2019
Presenter: Margot Atwell, Director of Publishing, Kickstarter
View slides
Kickstarter’s Director of Publishing Margot Atwell offers an introduction to how libraries and other cultural organizations can use crowdfunding platforms, and Kickstarter in particular, as tools for fundraising, storytelling, and community engagement. Participants will learn tips and best practices for crafting a successful Kickstarter campaign and leave with new ideas for raising visibility for their institutions or projects through Kickstarter campaigns.
DPLA and Ebooks: Expanding Access through Collaboration
Date: February 6, 2019
Presenters: Micah May, DPLA Ebooks Consultant; Tony Ageh, Chief Digital Officer, The New York Public Library; Michael Blackwell, Director of St. Mary’s County Library (MD); Valerie Horton, Director of Minitex; Michele Kimpton, DPLA Director of Business Development and Senior Strategist
View Slides
DPLA staff and partners provide a detailed overview of DPLA’s ebooks initiatives and how this work advances the field and supports libraries. The session will introduce the DPLA Exchange, Open Bookshelf, and SimplyE and the roles of key partners including The New York Public Library and LYRASIS. DPLA Exchange pilot partners and SimplyE implementation partners will provide insight from the field about their experiences and goals in adopting these tools and services.
Member Webinar: Easier Metadata Aggregation with the Michigan Service Hub’s Combine
Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Presenters: Rick Adler and Graham Hukill, Michigan Service Hub
The Michigan Service Hub is developing an application named “Combine” (pronounced /kämˌbīn/, a nod to the combine harvester used in farming) to support the aggregation, transformation, analysis, and publishing of metadata in preparation for DPLA. Combine leverages components from DPLA’s Ingestion 3 metadata platform, including the use of Apache Spark to process large record sets quickly and efficiently. Combine is metadata profile agnostic, allowing users to map, transform, and validate metadata records to suit their needs. This webinar provides an overview of Combine’s features and functionality, with the hope that Combine may be useful to other hubs for their own metadata aggregation.
Member Webinar: Grantseeking for Digital Libraries
Date: September 27, 2018
Presenter: Kate Tkacik, Director, Network Engagement at Foundation Center
This webinar will introduce Foundation Center’s Visualizing Funding For Libraries data tool, and show how digital libraries can leverage philanthropic data in grantseeking to support their collections and special projects. Participants will learn how to generate a list of prospective funders, how to use data visualizations to understand funding ecosystems, and get a basic understanding of foundation fundraising.
Member Webinar: DPLA Technology Projects Update
Date: August 21, 2018
Presenters: Michael Della Bitta, Director of Technology and Gretchen Gueguen, Interim Network Manager and Data Services Coordinator
Learn about DPLA’s current and upcoming technology projects and how they will help us serve our Members and improve content discovery and use. In this session, Michael and Gretchen present on recently-released tech projects like our revised data architecture, which allows us to be more flexible, responsive, and efficient in our work, and enhanced functionality made possible by our new website. The webinar also explores emerging initiatives such as our new feature for user-generated item lists and Member analytics dashboards that, for the first time, make data about usage, API statistics, and metadata quality available in one place. Finally, Michael and Gretchen update Members on projects and priorities on the table for the rest of 2018 including DPLA Local and new search features like autocomplete and spell check.
Member Webinar: Introduction to DPLA’s new website and DPLA Pro
Date: May 22, 2018
Presenters: Kelcy Shepherd, DPLA Network Manager, and Gretchen Gueguen, Data Services Coordinator
DPLA Network Manager Kelcy Shepherd and Data Services Coordinator Gretchen Gueguen give a brief overview of new features in https://dp.la and more thorough coverage of our new DPLA Pro site https://pro.dp.la. We’ll also be sharing some information on how we expect to build out the Pro site and other tools to support information sharing and collaboration among the Network.
Making Audio Collections Accessible, presented by Pop Up Archive and Duke University Libraries
Date: December 6, 2016
Presenters: Anne Wootton, Co-founder and CEO, Pop Up Archive; Leda Marritz, Pop Up Archive Community Manager; Molly Bragg, Digital Collections Program Manager, Duke University Libraries; Valerie Gillispie, Duke University Archivist; Katie Ross, Graduate Student Assistant, Chapel Recordings Project
In this one-hour workshop, presenters from Pop Up Archive and Duke University Libraries share an inside look at their collaboration on the Duke Chapel Recordings project, in which they are transcribing and making searchable a collection of audio and video sermons in order to expand access, use, and discoverability of this collection. Along the way, presenters Anne Wootton and Leda Marritz of Pop Up Archive introduce best practices for audio collection accessibility including transcription and searchability. Molly Bragg and Valerie Gillispie of Duke University Libraries also share a behind-the-scenes perspective on their project, including their goals and approach to the project, questions encountered along the way, how they have worked with partners in and outside of the library, and plans for next steps.
Using DPLA to Teach with Primary Sources
Date: October 2, 2018
Presenters: Jamie Lathan and Cate Denial, DPLA Education Advisory Committee members and Samantha Gibson, DPLA Engagement and Use Coordinator
In this one-hour webinar, presenters explore strategies for teaching with primary sources using the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and its Primary Source Sets. DPLA’s Primary Source Sets are collections of instructor-vetted primary sources on 140 topics in history, literature, and more, drawing on diverse resources found in DPLA—from newsreel footage to historical maps to oral histories. Presented by DPLA staff and members of DPLA’s Education Advisory Committee, this webinar offers student-centered primary source instruction techniques, shares proven strategies for teaching with the Primary Source Sets, and allows participants to generate implementation ideas customized for their students and curricula. If you already use DPLA in your instruction, gather new approaches to try this academic year. If you are new to DPLA, you will leave with hands-on experience navigating and using DPLA as well as concrete ideas to experiment with in class.
Using DPLA for Teaching and Learning
Date: November 3, 2015
Presenters: Franky Abbott, Curation and Education Strategist at DPLA, Adena Barnette, Ripley High School, and Melissa Strong, Northeastern State University
In this workshop, DPLA staff and members of the DPLA’s Education Advisory Committee will discuss the value of DPLA as a tool for teaching and learning and describe current DPLA education projects. Presenters: Franky Abbott (DPLA), Adena Barnette (History teacher, Ripley High School, Ripley, West Virginia), Melissa Strong (Associate Professor of English, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma).
GIF-Making 101
Date: September 21, 2016
Presenters: Shaelyn Amaio, Consultant at Lord Cultural Resources, and Derek Tulowitzky, Web, Social Media, and Outreach Manager at the Muncie Public Library
Ever wondered how to make an animated gif? Join gif-making experts Shaelyn Amaio (Consultant at Lord Cultural Resources) and Derek Tulowitzky (Web, Social Media, and Outreach Manager at the Muncie Public Library) for an hour long webinar workshop on how to make gifs using open materials found in DPLA and other digital libraries. The workshop will cover what gifs are, how to find suitable materials in DPLA and elsewhere, and how to make a simple gif. This workshop is the first part of a two-part series organized in conjunction with GIF IT UP 2016.
Advanced GIF-Making Techniques
Date: September 28, 2018
Presenters: Richard Naples, Outreach and Education Technical Information Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, and Darren Cole, Digital Engagement Specialist at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of Innovation
This hour long workshop focuses on how to use photo editing software to perform advanced gif-making techniques, such as how to use frame animation in order to make objects disappear and then reappear, move around, and change color. This workshop will be led by two seasoned gif-makers, Richard Naples (Outreach and Education Technical Information Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution) and Darren Cole (Digital Engagement Specialist at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of Innovation). This workshop is part two of a two-part series organized in conjunction with GIF IT UP 2016.
If you have Photoshop and would like to experiment with gif-making alongside our presenters, download the files shared during the workshop.
Using DPLA for Genealogy and Family History
Date: July 26, 2016
Presenters: Tamika Maddox Strong and Amy Johnson Crow, DPLA Community Reps
In this hour-long workshop webinar, DPLA Community Reps and experienced genealogists Tamika Maddox Strong and Amy Johnson Crow introduce DPLA as a resource for family historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in learning about new research skills and cool collections in DPLA. This workshop provides you with new tips for searching for family names in DPLA and exploring resources in your family’s hometown or region. We also take a peek at some of the collections that may prove invaluable for your family research: yearbooks, letters, newspapers, military records, family Bibles, and more! With content from 2,000 libraries, archives, and museums across the country, DPLA also offers a unique opportunity to dig deeper and add context to the lives of our ancestors. The workshop is free and open to all so whether you are new to DPLA, new to genealogy, or highly experienced, the workshop has something for you.
- View slides from the webinar
- View answers from webinar Q&A
- View DPLA collections highlighted in this webinar
RightsStatements.org: Why We Need It, What It Is (and Isn’t) and What Does It Mean for the DPLA Network and Beyond?
Date: May 10 and May 17, 2016
Presenters: Emily Gore (DPLA) and Greg Cram (NYPL)
Over the course of two workshops, presenters Emily Gore (DPLA), and Greg Cram (NYPL), discuss the recently launched RightsStatements.org project. The goal of RightsStatements.org is to provide standardized rights statements for cultural heritage institutions and aggregators. This two-part webinar series demonstrates and describes the need for the statements, the rationale behind the statements, and NYPL and DPLA’s implementation plans. Part I of the workshop covers the need for the statements and the philosophy behind the statements. Part II of the workshop covers the statements themselves along with the implementation strategy.
Introduction to the DPLA’s Application Programming Interface
Date: February 11, 2016
Presenter: Mark Breedlove, DPLA Senior Developer
This webinar introduces the fundamentals of distributed web application architecture to an uninitiated audience, with a special focus on the DPLA’s Application Programming Interface, or API. We will cover what a web application is, what an API is, how web applications on different sites communicate with one another, and why. This webinar should interest those who have been hearing about “APIs” and “web applications,” but do not fully understand what these terms mean; or those who understand generally, but want to get a better sense of what the DPLA’s API can do and what role it plays at a high level. Participants will leave the webinar feeling confident in their ability to discuss web APIs and strategies for their implementation. This workshop is led by Mark Breedlove, DPLA Technology Specialist.
Self-Guided Curriculum for Digitization
Planning for Digitization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2eUVPB6X3g&t=13s
Selecting Content for a Digitization Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01yQz4oztLo&feature=youtu.be
Understanding Copyright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AurzAmj4SvM&feature=youtu.be
Using Metadata to Describe Digital Content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqgFLj_yspk&feature=youtu.be
Digital Reformatting and File Management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiTBxHqws7A&feature=youtu.be
Promoting Use of Your Digital Content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rzcamxx8b8&feature=youtu.be