On April 18, the Digital Public Library of America was launched. The aim of the DPLA is to bring together content from the country's libraries, archives, and museums in one central location. Here is the DPLA's vision in their own words:
The vision of a national digital library has been circulating among
librarians, scholars, educators, and private industry representatives
since the early 1990s. Efforts led by a range of organizations,
including the Library of Congress, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive,
have successfully built resources that provide books, images, historic
records, and audiovisual materials to anyone with Internet access. Many
universities, public libraries, and other public-spirited organizations
have digitized materials, but these digital collections often exist in
silos. The DPLA brings these different viewpoints, experiences, and
collections together in a single platform and portal, providing open and
coherent access to our society’s digitized cultural heritage.
The DPLA will serve as a great resource for Primary Sources. In addition to search, the casual browser can explore via location or date using interactive maps and timelines. The site has a short, easy-to-remember URL:
