Announcement of Million Dollar Grant at DPLAfest

Hello digital library friends! Anna, Sandra, and I got back on Saturday from the first annual DPLAfest in Boston, and I am bursting with news that affects our regional digital libraries.

The one that I will blog about today is the announcement of a new $1,000,000 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to train public librarians in digital technologies. Under the grant, service hubs -- like the Mountain West Digital Library -- will collaborate with DPLA to build new curriculum and hands-on resources for public libraries to expand their digital capacities.

Announcement of $1,000,000 grant at the DPLAfest reception

What does this money mean for us in the Mountain West? It may be too early to say, but I see it as a chance for MWDL to train public librarians in digitizing their physical materials, creating online exhibits, and using DPLA/MWDL as a research resource. Public libraries have far better access to the general public than academic libraries and can facilitate access to our online historic treasures to audiences that don't realize they exist.

A big thank you to Bill and Melinda Gates for all the good you do!

Looking forward to Boston

The idea of a national digital library has been in the air for years, a repository where our combined digital cultural treasures can be accessed in one location. Still in the nascent stages, the Digital Public Library of America has taken on this role. This week we are going to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment with hundreds of librarians, archivists, and curators at DPLAfest in Boston! 

As I'm sure many of you know, the Mountain West Digital Library has been selected as one of six service hubs for DPLA. That means that our collection of 800,000 items is sent up to DPLA through the magic of OAI harvesting and is combined with the collections of six other hubs as well as individual contributing institutions like HathiTrust and the Smithsonian.

I for one can't wait to swap stories with representatives from the other hubs, celebrate with my fellow librarians, and discuss issues like copyright, metadata, and open access.   Really, can ANY of you imagine a better way to spend your work week?