U.S. Copyright Law and Creative Commons Licensing
2025-10-08 11:30 - 12:30 UTC | Zoom
The PA Digital rights team will host an event on Wednesday, October 8, at 11:30AM Mountain/10:30 AM Pacific on U.S. Copyright Law and Creative Commons Licensing.
Danielle Steinhart will provide a brief introduction to U.S. copyright law and Creative Commons licensing. She will talk about what copyright covers, including fair use and how copyrighted works enter the public domain. You’ll also learn about the different types of Creative Commons licenses. There will be a Q&A after the presentation.
Danielle Steinhart is the Interim Head of the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright at Penn State University Libraries where she assists faculty, staff, and students, with copyright and scholarly communications matters and serves as a resource on these topics for the Libraries departments and projects. Danielle practiced law early in her career before transitioning to academia and has been with Penn State Libraries for the past three years.
Please register to receive the Zoom information.

Webinar: I Have Thousands of Items in Commons – What Do I Do Now?: Utilization Opportunities on Wikimedia Commons
2025-10-09 11:00 - 12:00
Giovanna Fontenelle, Christine Fernsebner Eslao Jamie Flood, and Dominic Byrd-McDevitt will together look at how DPLA contributors and other cultural heritage institutions are using Commons and Wikipedia beyond uploads. They will share about updating and improving metadata for Commons uploads, and look at projects about improved descriptions and captioning. We will explain what Wikidata is and how institutions may want to consider utilizing it, and briefly touch on adding images to Wikipedia (which will be covered in-depth in another webinar).

Preservation West Symposium
2025-10-16 08:00 - 2025-10-17 17:00 | Conference Center, 60 North Temple, Salt Lake City, UT, 84150, United States
The Preservation West Symposium is a professional gathering that will bring together experts in the fields of preservation, conservation, and care of historic documents and artifacts, as well as university students aspiring to enter the field, helping us build capability by providing a platform for collaboration, broadening knowledge and experience, and networking across Utah’s preservation community.
Parking will be provided onsite and light snacks will be provided throughout the event.
Registration is free and closes September 29, 2025. Please register here.
If you are interested in presenting, please submit a proposal by July 31.

Save the Date! DPLA Hub Meeting 2025
2025-10-28 - 2025-10-29 | Temple University Charles Library, 1900 N 13th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19122
DPLA plans to gather as a Hub community this October. PA Digital, the Pennsylvania hub, and Temple University have agreed to host an event in Philadelphia, PA. The goal is to come together to plan for 2026 and beyond. DPLA staff will be working with Network Council to develop the agenda for the meeting.
Stay tuned for more details!

National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Grant Opportunity
2025-11-05
Introduction
The NHPRC seeks archival projects that will significantly improve online public discovery and use of historical records collections. We welcome projects that engage the public, expand civic education, and promote understanding of the nation’s history, democracy, and culture from the founding era to the present day. The Commission encourages projects focused on collections of America’s early legal records, such as the records of colonial, territorial, county, and early statehood and tribal proceedings that document the evolution of the nation’s legal history.
Projects may preserve and process historical records to:

Arrange or re-house and describe collections
Convert existing description for online access
Create new online Finding Aids to collections
Digitize historical records collections and make them freely available online

All types of historical records are eligible, including documents, photographs, born-digital records, and analog audio and moving images.
The successful application will:

demonstrate the value of the collections to public understanding of United States democracy and culture;
outline a project that addresses archival best practices;
be appropriately staffed with archivists;
propose a budget that accomplishes the project in a cost-effective manner; and
outline activities that bring researchers to the collections included in the project as well as the rest of the repository’s holdings.

For a comprehensive list of Commission limitations on funding, please see: What we do and do not fund .
Award Information
A grant is for one to two years and for up to $150,000. The Commission expects to make up to 14 grants in this category for a total of up to $1,400,000. The Commission requires that grant recipients acknowledge NHPRC grant assistance in all publicity, publications, and other products that result from its support. Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds.
Eligibility

U.S. nonprofit organizations or institutions
U.S. colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
State or local government agencies
Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups

In order to ensure eligibility, applicants should first review the rules and regulations governing NHPRC grants under the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

Fall 2025 MWDL Governing Body Meeting
2025-11-05 13:00 - 14:30
The MWDL Governing Body will hold its fall semi-annual meeting on November 5, 2025.

Webinar: Wikipedia Edit-a-thons: Minimum Lift for Maximum Reward
2025-11-13 11:00 - 12:00
While Wikipedia edit-a-thons may sound like a daunting event opportunity, sharing experiences, guides, and best practices, can make editing an easy engagement opportunity for institutions contributing to Wikimedia Commons through DPLA. Jamie Flood has been organizing and supporting Wikipedia editing events for almost a decade, and has worked the process of organizing an event into an accessible, if not easy, opportunity to engage community members with cultural heritage collections. During the presentation, we will look at different event types/styles, how to handle a work list and tracking, and best practices for outreach to ensure you meet interested community members – and even experienced Wikipedians.

DLF Forum 2025 - Denver, CO
2025-11-16 08:00 - 2025-11-19 17:00
DLF programs stretch year-round, but they are perhaps best known for our signature event, the annual DLF Forum. DLF Forum welcomes digital library, archives, and museum practitioners from member institutions and beyond—for whom it serves as a meeting place, marketplace, and congress. As a meeting place, DLF Forum provides an opportunity for our working groups, and community members to conduct their business and present their work. As a marketplace, the Forum provides an opportunity for community members to share experiences and practices with one another and support a broader level of information sharing among professional staff. As a congress, the Forum provides an opportunity for the DLF to continually review and assess its programs and its progress with input from the community at large.
Registration is now open and early-bird pricing ends August 14, 2025. All registration closes October 31, 2025.

Registration includes meals: two basic continental breakfasts, two lunches, frequent coffee/snack breaks.
Ticket to the conference reception (including one alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage).
DLF member organizations receive one free registration code to the DLF Forum, emailed to the main contact. Not sure who receives your organization’s code? Email us at forum@diglib.org.

Call for Proposals: 2026 Western History Association Conference
2025-12-06
The Call for Papers is now open for the Western History Association’s 66th Annual Conference, October 21-24, 2026, in Portland, Oregon.
The 2026 conference theme, “Unsettled: New Wests, New Lessons,” acknowledges how communities and scholars continue to expand our understanding of who prospered and suffered in the North American West. They have unsettled the past by showing us that the past is unsettling.
With their insights in mind, the 2026 Program Committee calls for papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, and innovative session formats that encourage us to learn lessons from each other.
See more information at the link provided.

Webinar: Wikipedia Metrics & Tools for DPLA Contributors
2025-12-11 11:00 - 12:00
With Christine Fernsebner Eslao, Giovanna Fontenelle, and Jamie Flood. Join members of the Wikimedia Working Group for an overview of metrics and tracking tools across Wikimedia platforms. We will look at metrics and tools while offering advice for institutions currently contributing, or looking to get involved with the DPLA Wikimedia Pipeline, and related Wikipedia work and editing. During the presentation we will cover pipeline metrics, Wikimedia events dashboard and using it for tracking, article assessment tools, a tool for adding images to articles, and Wikimedia Commons specific tools. Additionally, we will briefly discuss new Wikimedia Foundation tools that are being developed. The presenters have first hand experience with all tools being covered and will offer insight and demonstrations into how to best utilize them for your personal or institutional editing and content goals.

Webinar: A Case Study of Wikimedia for DPLA institutions
2026-01-08 11:00 - 12:00
The Wikipedia for Cultural Heritage lecture series will end with a case study from a DPLA hub, the Minnesota Digital Library. Working together with a cohort of several of their contributing institutions, MDL utilized the DPLA Wikimedia pipeline to share over 375,000 images. One of the project’s coordinators, Sara Ring, will offer an overview of how they got started in their work on Wikipedia, how it has been going, and offer insights into how an institution could start their own project.

Roots Tech 2026
2026-03-05 - 2026-03-07 | Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Roots Tech is the world’s largest family discovery event and will be held March 5–7, 2026. Join in-person in Salt Lake City, Utah or online world-wide. See organizer website for more details and pricing!
