Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): the Beginning of a Long Journey

Abstract

The article analyzes the development of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), an open distributed network of online resources intended to unite the intellectual heritage of the United States. Particular attention is paid to the development of the concept of national digital library as a unified platform of distributed resources. There is analyzed in detail the organizational strategy, underlying the DPLA development as a growing network of service centers (service hubs) and content centers (content hubs). Universal free access to the DPLA resources is provided by using universal open codes. As network library system that combines online geographically remote resources, DPLA is actively using the interactive potential of modern information and communication technologies, for example, geolocation service. The article analyzes the dynamics of DPLA development in the context of national and international cooperation in terms of further improvement of the new information paradigm of digital libraries. Interaction with other digital libraries, the new format of providing information services (in particular, the mobile version of the library website), free access to the presented collections and open codes, enabling the user to actively participate in the development of the resource — all this makes DPLA a full link of the electronic civilization.