“A national digital library makes a lot of sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s surprising that a private university has to be the one to try to tackle the enormous challenge of making it a reality.\u00a0\u00a0There are considerable barriers that need to be dealt with before the DPLA could exist.\u00a0 The biggest issue by far is determining what can legally be digitized and stored in the repository.\u00a0 Copyright issues can present significant challenges for digital content.\u00a0 For example, are you allowed to digitize really cool photographs\u00a0taken during\u00a0World War II that have no photographer listed?\u00a0 Political issues present substantial barriers as well.\u00a0 Getting approval to get federal funding for just about anything\u00a0in our current economic climate\u00a0is virtually impossible.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps this\u00a0obstacle could be overcome since the\u00a0DPLA would actually save money by getting rid of a chunk of technology spending from pretty much every library, museum, and archive.<\/p>\n
“It seems strange that the United States doesn\u2019t have a national digital library already.\u00a0 We lead the world in so many other areas, yet we are completely fragmented in\u00a0the storing of our digital culture and history.\u00a0 Many other countries already have national digital libraries.\u00a0 The European Union has a pretty impressive digital repository called\u00a0Europeana<\/a>.\u00a0 Take a few moments to browse that site and you can start to visualize what our national digital library would look like.<\/p>\n “The DPLA would be a way to store the entire cultural heritage and history of our country in one place.\u00a0 It would make digital scans of historical documents, artwork,\u00a0and photos accessible to everyone.\u00a0 It would be compatible with Europeana\u2019s standards too.\u00a0 So it would essentially allow access to all digital collections in the United States and Europe all through one interface.\u00a0 That would be truly amazing.”<\/p>\n