Dan Cohen, the newly named Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, spoke at NYU's Humanities Initiative on Thursday, April 4, 2013 about the DPLA. Dan who was closely involved with the development of the scholarly tool Zotero and the exhibition tool for library and museum collections, Omeka. He will be leaving George Mason University for the DPLA and Cambridge on April 18 when the DPLA officially launches at the Boston Public Library.
Robert Darnton of Harvard
University's Libraries had
written in the New York Review of
Books earlier this week, but it was great to hear Cohen talk about
underlying concepts and infrastructure issues. He provided much more detail
than Darnton did. Although people will try to tell you that the web is
America's digital public library, the web in fact, cannot handle local history
and archival materials which are either hard to find, scattered, poorly
described or behind "gates." The DPLA will knit together widely
separated library and museum resources for research, classroom and general
interest. Cohen pointed to the ideal of the American public library which is
open to all, never tracks your activity, and doesn't judge how you use the
information it provides, whether for research, leisure or business. He noted
that America's
public libraries can be community centers, but they also help people start
businesses, and we cannot underestimate their impact (including the financial
impact) on communities.
