Beta Sprint Review Panel Announces Results

Cambridge, MA—The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Steering Committee* has invited the creators of the following submissions to the DPLA Beta Sprint, an open call for code and concepts defining how the DPLA might operate, to present at the public plenary meeting taking place on October 21, 2011 in Washington, DC:

• Digital Collaboration for America’s National Collections
  The Digital Collaboration demonstrates the ability of three
  disparate, major national institutions to work together through one
  unified search tool. Submitted by the National Archives, the Library
  of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution. 
• DLF/DCC: DPLA Beta Sprint
  The DLF/DCC Beta Sprint project serves as a search tool for the
  DCC’s collection of cultural and scientific heritage resources,
  presenting unique ways of organizing and presenting materials and
  metadata. Submitted by CLIR: Digital Library Federation and the
  University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, School of Information,
  Science and Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship. 
• extraMUROS
  extraMUROS proposes to shape the Digital Public Library of
  America into a multimedia-library-without-walls through an open source,
  HTML5 platform. Submitted by metaLAB (at) Harvard, the Harvard
  Library Lab, and Media And Place (MAP) Productions. 
• Government Publications: Enhanced Access and Discovery through
  Open Linked Data and Crowdsourcing
  The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (or CIC) has been
  leading a coordinated effort to digitize government documents. The
  project continues with an approximate target of digitizing a total of 1+
  million print documents. Submitted by the University of Minnesota,
  the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, and HathiTrust. 
• Metadata Interoperability Services
  Metadata Interoperability Services (MINT) is a web-based
  platform that enables the aggregation of rich and diverse cultural
  heritage content and metadata. Submitted by MINT at the National
  Technical University of Athens. 
• ShelfLife and LibraryCloud
  ShelfLife is intended to provide users with a rich environment
  for exploring the combined content of the DPLA, discovering new works,
  and engaging more deeply with them via social interactions. LibraryCloud
  is the backend metadata server that supports ShelfLife. Submitted by
  the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and multiple partners.

The six selected projects were invited on the basis of recommendations made by an independent review panel composed of public and research librarians and experts in the fields of library science and information management. The panel met in Cambridge, MA on September 18, 2011 to discuss the 38 final Beta Sprint submissions.

“We are deeply grateful for the Beta Sprint Review Panel’s work,” said John Palfrey, chair of the DPLA Steering Committee. “We are excited to have such creative, innovative projects and ideas – many of them already put into code — off of which we will build a Digital Public Library of America. We congratulate all sprinters on their tremendous effort and encourage everyone to continue building networks and see their inspired ideas forward, whether through this project or otherwise.”

The Steering Committee has also invited the creators of three projects—Bookworm, DPLA Collection Achievements & Profiles System, and WikiCite—A Universal Citation Platform—to participate in a “lightning round” of presentations at the plenary, featuring submissions that may serve as useful additions to the DPLA’s initial technical foundation.

Each project was evaluated independently according to criteria adapted from the review criteria for the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. More information about the review process and results is available at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/dpla.

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About the Digital Public Library of America
The DPLA Steering Committee is leading the first concrete steps toward the realization of a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all. This impact-oriented research effort unites leaders from all types of libraries, museums, and archives with educators, industry, and government to define the vision for a digital library in service of the American public. The DPLA Secretariat is located at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; the Steering Committee comprises library and foundation leaders across the nation. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/dpla.

About the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology, and society. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/.

Digital Public Library of America Steering Committee
Paul Courant, Harold T. Shapiro Professor of Public Policy and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan
Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library
Carla Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, Maryland)
Charles Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
Luis Herrera, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco
Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services
Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive
Michael A. Keller, Ida M. Green University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources at Stanford University
Carl Malamud, President, Public.Resource.Org
Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress
Maura Marx, Berkman Center Fellow and Executive Director, Open Knowledge Commons
Jerome McGann, John Stewart Bryan University Professor at the University of Virginia
Dwight McInvaill, Director of the Georgetown County Library (South Carolina)
John Palfrey, Faculty Co-Director at the Berkman Center; Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School
Peggy Rudd, Executive Director/State Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Amy E. Ryan, President of the Boston Public Library
Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Contact:
Rebekah Heacock
Project Coordinator
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
rheacock [at] cyber.law.harvard.edu