The idea of a national digital library has been in the air for years, a repository where our combined digital cultural treasures can be accessed in one location. Still in the nascent stages, the Digital Public Library of America has taken on this role. This week we are going to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment with hundreds of librarians, archivists, and curators at DPLAfest in Boston! 

As I’m sure many of you know, the Mountain West Digital Library has been selected as one of six service hubs for DPLA. That means that our collection of 800,000 items is sent up to DPLA through the magic of OAI harvesting and is combined with the collections of six other hubs as well as individual contributing institutions like HathiTrust and the Smithsonian.

I for one can’t wait to swap stories with representatives from the other hubs, celebrate with my fellow librarians, and discuss issues like copyright, metadata, and open access.   Really, can ANY of you imagine a better way to spend your work week?