Written by Michael Paulmeno *

Translated by Dr. Abdul Rahman Farraj **

The number of digital sources is increasing year after year, and these sources include: books, journal articles, manuscripts, photos, and others. These sources are, of course, distributed across many institutions. However, while we now have many national libraries and state libraries that index, lend, and preserve paper sources, there is no equivalent for those libraries in the digital world.

We can point in this regard to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), which has been working since its inception in 2013 to connect repositories hosting digital content with its potential beneficiaries.

The library can thus be viewed as a search engine: it basically collects metadata from various sources and provides a unified interface to search them. Thus, a student from Mississippi can view digitized photos from a small historical society in Washington, without having to know what that society is. Thus it can be said that this library acts as a national digital library.

History of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and its Basic Structure

Although the concept itself es back many years, the planning of that digital library did not actually begin until 2013. In October of that year, forty prominent figures from the world of libraries and academic and technical institutions met in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The vision then was for the library to be a comprehensive network of sources derived from all over the country. With further support from Harvard University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2), the dream became a reality.

The basic structure of this digital library differs from the traditional library. Instead of storing all sources in one central location, (DPLA) is built on a partnership with many different institutions. Some of these institutions act as "service hubs" to collect metadata from other smaller institutions and pass it to the national digital library. By April 2015, there were 13 "service hubs" including the Digital Library of Georgia, the Empire State Digital Network, and the South Carolina Digital Library.

Furthermore, there are what are called "content hubs," which are those major institutions - such as Harvard University, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian Institution (3) - which together contribute more than 2,000,000 records. Unlike service hubs, "content hubs" do not aim to collect metadata from other institutions, but rather provide metadata for their own collections. As of 2015, there were 16 content hubs in this project.

als of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

The (DPLA) digital library works to achieve a number of als, perhaps at the top of which is expanding the scope of the "service hubs" network to include the entire United States. When that happens, that digital library will be able to achieve the ambition of actually becoming a national digital library. In addition, (DPLA) works on diversifying its collections, and thus trying to ensure that all geographical regions, time periods, and patterns of content are equally represented in the project.

At the same time, this digital library seeks to increase the use of platforms belonging to its affiliated institutions. That is because providing access to all our digitized cultural heritage is of little use if no one views it, so the community rep program is one of the efforts to increase awareness of those platforms. Also, those platforms act as a multiplying force in the project, as they drive the dissemination of the project's name throughout the country in ways that the employees of those participating institutions cannot do alone.

Similarly, the annual conference titled (DPLAfest) (4) sponsored by that digital library will start touring throughout the country, allowing beneficiaries from different regions to interact with (DPLA) representatives and employees when reviewing the project's achievements.

Above all, the focus will be on education, so (DPLA) digital library plans intend to do everything possible to become more familiar with teachers' needs and how to benefit them from the relevant collections. To further facilitate increased use, (DPLA) is considering expanding organized exhibitions, and the possibility of adding content pages according to the pathfinder style to facilitate access to relevant information sources within the collections. These efforts, along with the sources that enjoy actual benefit from the educational point of view, will work to increase the value of those sources for teachers and other educators.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) in Mississippi

Many will naturally wonder about the relevance of the above to the state of Mississippi. That is because there is currently neither a service center nor a content center inside the state, and thus the amount of sources related to Mississippi is considered very few at the present time. Unfortunately, not much can be done in the short term to correct this situation, as the establishment of a new service center requires a lot of planning and efforts, besides that this construction process is considered completely independent of the information culture carried out by specialists in the information cluster.

The truth is that one of the most prominent points of strength that the (DPLA) digital library enjoys is the communications network it established with different regions in the country. Therefore, while reaching sources related to Mississippi is difficult by any means, it is not so for the rest of the abundant sources that represent the history of the United States. Accordingly, any high school student (5) can reach sources acquired by institutions participating in the project across the United States; which means that all beneficiaries can access that hidden treasure through the search interface of that digital library.

In addition, as a result of the partnership with libraries, archives and museums, the results that the beneficiary retrieves from (DPLA) are likely to be more accurate than their counterparts retrieved from search engines like ogle. It can also be said, in some ways, that this digital library is similar to some database centers that rely on commercial subscriptions and which are provided by contractors such as EBSCO or which are presented by some institutions such as HathiTrust (6). Perhaps the main difference here is that (DPLA) provides access to information sources available for free in a wide range of storage formats.

Conclusion

Many are the capabilities enjoyed by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). This library is a model of decentralization in the work of institutions: it connects different institutions with each other so that it represents the point where the beneficiary can access the library collections. The truth is that it - until now - is not a type of library, but rather a more accurate and precise aggregation service than search engines and a free alternative to database centers with commercial subscriptions. It is true that its scope has not yet become universal as per its declared vision, but its increasing daily benefit by students, teachers and librarians will encourage - more than ever - traffic to it, which naturally drives further development. Thus, we can all play a role in building that great digital library for America.

(*) Paulmeno, Michael. Digital Public Library of America: Building a National Digital Library. Mississippi Libraries. Vol. 78, No. 2, Pp. 7-8.

(*) Electronic Services Specialist – Systems Management – Robert Laforge Library – Delta State University

(**) Department of Information Sciences – Beni Suef University

Translator Comments

(Endnotes)

1. The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), available at: https://dp.la

2. One of the American funding institutions, which provides grants to support original research and educational projects related to science, technology, and economic performance; and improve the quality of American life. The institution's link on the Internet: http://www.sloan.org

3. The Smithsonian Museum is one of the largest museums in the world, and it is in fact an educational and research complex that includes 19 museums and galleries, in addition to the National Zoo, and 9 research facilities.

4. A series of conferences and workshops began under this name in 2013 in Boston. See the series website at the link: http://dp.la/info/getinvolved/dplafest

5. The interest in students here is similar to what the "Egyptian Knowledge Bank" project did by making its resources available according to four cateries: general readers, researchers, students, and children. See: http://www.ekb.eg/register

6. "HathiTrust" is a digital repository aiming at long-term preservation and providing access services to public domain sources and content protected by copyright from a different set of sources such as ogle, the Internet Archive, and some local information initiatives. The repository is available at the link: https://www.hathitrust.org