Digital Public Library of America, Inc.
To leverage DPLA's national network for the creation of a free eBook collection available in 50 states and a pilot eBook marketplace for thousands of libraries and schools
Funds from this grant support a two-pronged initiative by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to significantly expand access to eBooks for thousands of libraries and schools across the country. First, DPLA plans to improve the curation and distribution of open eBook content by creating a new DPLA eBook collection, which it will make available to 16,000 libraries across the country. Working with authors, publishers, and both corporate and nonprofit partners, the DPLA collection will include at least 3,000 popular fiction and nonfiction titles, textbooks, and educational resources, all formatted in the highly flexible EPUB format. Second, the DPLA will pilot a new spin-off entity, which will use market-based methods to increase the availability and reduce the price of eBooks from publishers and potentially generate revenue for DPLA and its library partners. Building on work done with the New York Public Library, the DPLA will explore different revenue models for a nationwide marketplace for buying eBooks, with licensing restrictions, that aims to enable low-cost bulk purchases of eBooks for statewide virtual libraries, promising to significantly expand access to eBooks to millions across the country.