The Digital Public Library of America: An Introduction

You are cordially invited to attend:
“The Digital Public Library of America: An Introduction”

Thursday, May 23
3340 Moore Hall
University of California, Los Angeles
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

campus map | parking

The Digital Public Library of America launched on April 18, 2013. Founding Executive Director Dan Cohen will outline the three main elements of the DPLA: a portal that knits together the collections of America's libraries, archives, and museums; a technical platform that will enable new, transformative uses of these collections and let others build upon them; and advocacy for a strong public option for reading and research in the twenty-first century, including an expansion of available open-access materials. Cohen will also discuss how the DPLA complements the roles of public and research libraries, and explore some unique ways that the DPLA will be used.

Daniel J. Cohen is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. He has recently been appointed as the founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, which is launching in April 2013. At the Center, Cohen has overseen projects ranging from new publishing ventures (PressForward) to online collections (September 11 Digital Archive) to software for scholarship (the popular Zotero research tool). His books include Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (with Roy Rosenzweig) and Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith. Cohen was an inaugural recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellowship. In 2011 he received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award from the American Library Association for his work in digital humanities, and in 2012 he was named one of the top “tech innovators” in academia by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Cohen blogs at dancohen.org and tweets @dancohen.

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Library and the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

No RSVP necessary; all are welcome.