Digital Public Library of America news

[ekaser]

A news release from the Digital Public Library of America, home page at:

Digital Public Library of America

announces that:

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF) have partnered with DPLA by contributing more than 390,000 items, including antique maps, rare books, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, newspapers, and research publications. All will become accessible to DPLA’s global audience of students, teachers, scholars, developers, and the public.

The Smathers Libraries serve as the technical hub for the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and other partners in the region and are contributing records from the University of Florida, dLOC, and other partner collections.

The Smathers Libraries collections will bring a new, diverse set of perspectives to DPLA’s holdings. For example, more than 150,000 issues of Florida and Caribbean newspapers, historical to current, provide insight into the news and history of Florida, the Caribbean, and circum-Caribbean.

“A primary focus of our second year is expanding across the entire country, and the tremendous University of Florida collection fills a gap we have had in the southeast,” said DPLA Executive Director Dan Cohen. “But more important, the richness and diversity of Florida’s collection is simply wonderful, and we’re excited to help share their materials with the world.”

Full story at:

Partnership with the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida

[rollei]

Will be a treat to have access to antique maps, rare books, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories etc.

[jscarbo]

I've had their website bookmarked for sometime but still haven't been able to figure out how to make much use of it. The way their collections are organized makes it difficult to browse for books and documents that may be of interest to me. I can certainly see how it might be useful for academics but not for the general public.