HathiTrust and the Digital Public Library of America

摘要

By the beginning of the 21st century, several trends in the evolution of libraries had emerged-collaboration was a key to survival; technology would play an integral role; library as "place" would supersede a warehouse function; and digitization would prevail. In this article I want to explore two experiments that represent the perfect interweaving of these trends-HathiTrust (hathitrust.org) and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA; dp.la). These experiments in shared systems, metadata, and digitized content represent projects of a grand and grander scale. While there is no guarantee that either of these projects will be around, at least in current manifestation, it is almost certain that within 15 years their models will provide guidance for any large-scale library ventures of the future.