Digital Public Library of America Steering Committee Announces the Beta Sprint Review Panel

Cambridge, MA — After a careful selection process, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Steering Committee is thrilled to announce the eight members of the Beta Sprint Review Panel. The panel will convene in early September to review the Beta Sprint submissions. The creators of the most promising betas will be invited to present at the October 21, 2011 public plenary meeting in Washington, DC.

The panel is composed of public and research librarians and experts in the fields of library science and information management from around the country:

• Patsy Baudoin, MIT Libraries
• Maeve Clark, Iowa City Public Library
• Laura DeBonis
• Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District Library
• David Rumsey, David Rumsey Map Collection
• Michael Santangelo, Brooklyn Public Library
• John Weise, HathiTrust
• Jessamyn West, library technologist

“The Beta Sprint process is core to the principles of the DPLA,” said John Palfrey, chair of the DPLA Steering Committee. “This library cannot be built without intensive collaboration and broadly open opportunities for public participation. A project of this size needs as many innovative ideas as it does source materials, and I am confident that the Review Panel will guide the initiative to the most exciting of these ideas and to the most promising next steps.”

Over 60 statements of interest have been submitted to the Beta Sprint. Beta Sprint projects range widely from code to concepts, including ideas about digital lending models, methods for organizing and presenting digital video, and fully formed tools to handle metadata. The Beta Sprinters are a diverse group of academic librarians, public librarians, students, media organizations, and civilians from all over the world. You can watch a short video about the Beta Sprint at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrmO-qUzjxM.

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About the Digital Public Library of America
The DPLA Steering Committee is leading the first concrete steps toward the realization of a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all. This impact-oriented research effort unites leaders from all types of libraries, museums, and archives with educators, industry, and government to define the vision for a digital library in service of the American public. The DPLA Secretariat is located at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; the Steering Committee comprises library and foundation leaders across the nation. More information can be found at http://cyber.harvard.edu/research/dpla.

About the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology, and society. More information can be found at http://cyber.harvard.edu/.

Digital Public Library of America Steering Committee
Paul Courant, Harold T. Shapiro Professor of Public Policy and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan
Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library
Carla Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, Maryland)
Charles Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
Luis Herrera, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco
Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services
Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive
Michael A. Keller, Ida M. Green University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources at Stanford University
Carl Malamud, President, Public.Resource.Org
Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress
Maura Marx, Berkman Center Fellow and Executive Director, Open Knowledge Commons
Jerome McGann, John Stewart Bryan University Professor at the University of Virginia
Dwight McInvaill, Director of the Georgetown County Library (South Carolina)
John Palfrey, Faculty Co-Director at the Berkman Center; Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School
Peggy Rudd, Executive Director/State Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Amy E. Ryan, President of the Boston Public Library
Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Contact:
Rebekah Heacock
Project Coordinator
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
rheacock@cyber.harvard.edu