Digital Public Library

A classmate of mine posted a recent blog discussing the Digital Public Library of America, or DPLA. Though I'd seen the DPLA referenced here and there in articles read for other classes, I never really took the time to check it out until now. Having now rectified that oversight, I can say that the DPLA looks to be a fantastic resource, combining some of the best elements one would expect to see in an online library: picture galleries, archival collections, and, of course, a vast number of digitized books from some of the more noteworthy institutions across the United States. Additionally, the DPLA boasts features that give the collection a distinctly modern and digital flavor: apps, games, virtual bookshelves, discovery services, and yes, even a way to make historical Lolcats.

One area that is of particular interest in scanning the DPLA is viewing the way that item records and metadata are utilized. While books, electronic documents, archival resources, and visual media all are normally described using different standards and protocols, the DPLA brings all its resources under a unified internal metadata schema. Unlike some other schema, however, DPLA's also appears to integrate a number of controlled vocabularies and thesauri, which means that the system retains some of the precision in search and retrieval that one would expect to find in other vocabulary-controlled systems, like a library catalog. Though undoubtedly far from perfect, I think the DPLA represents some interesting possibilities for the potential of library-type collections in an online environment, bringing together some of the structured, organized, and controlled features of library collections, with the vast amount of information and interactivity available in the digital world.