>> Richard Reyes Gavilan: My name is Richard Reyes Gavilan.
I'm the Executive Director of the DC Public Library, and welcome.
Welcome to DC, and welcome to this space.
Just a couple of remarks that I prepared on my way into work this morning to sort of maybe
set the stage for the conversation, one of my favorite aspects of library work involves
reconciling the seemingly contradictory forces that are always in play as we attempt to sort
of deliver effective services, access vs. ownership, outputs versus outcomes, transaction
versus transformation, you know, these are things that I'm always thinking about whenever
we sort of allocate money for a certain program or service.
You know, my favorite one of these dichotomies that I talk to staff all the time about are
these two phrases from a couple of guys who are not librarians, they’re no library workers,
but they write a lot about libraries.
One said at one point, maybe in a conference or something, the space is the service, and
he was talking about, you know, new and renovated libraries and all the spaces that you can
just sort of plug and play and libraries will always be wonderful relevant and good by virtue
of our new modernized buildings.
The other said something that is sort of the opposite of that.
He said libraries are not their buildings, and he was talking about this increasing push
to add digital content that might make the physical library obsolete, and he wasn't saying
it in a bad way, but he was saying that so much of what we're doing takes place outside
of the walls of the physical library, and I think about these two forces and how they
sort of interplay all the time, and I think about in what camp does this discussion that
we're having this morning on the national digital platform belong in, and I guess I
would probably argue that it belongs in both.
You know, on the one hand, what DPLA and others are doing is really the embodiment of libraries
are not their buildings, but on the other hand, I think of all the content that feeds
this platform and the ideal spaces in which the content can be created and manipulated
and discussed and re manipulated, and I start thinking about bricks and mortar, and in this
particular instance at MLK Library, I think about Steel and Glass, which brings me a little
bit to this building right here, because I love talking about it.
This is the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Memorial Library, a place that was really obsolete on the day that it opened in 1972,
and you can see little bit about why that is because of the building, or the room in
which you’re sitting.
We've actually been repurposing this room for punk shows to support our DC punk archive,
which we launched this year.
(Applause.)
>> Richard Reyes Gavilan: It's not the most inspiring space, by any stretch of the imagination,
but we're fixing all that, so the city has committed $200 million to the modernization
of this building, and we hope to get underway late next year, and that is going to involve
creating, really, the most spectacular destination for learning that this city has ever seen,
and I wish I had a lot of time because we've got a lot of great renderings and a great
architect from the Netherlands who's really thinking this building through, but my favorite
aspect is going to be how we can rethink our special collections department.
So, we've got a Washingtonian Department up on the 3rd floor, and they collect a lot of
great things, and they collect DC punk ephemera and they collect a lot of newspapers and a
lot of things, but there are a whole world of other local history organizations, big
and small, in the city, and I am actively reaching out to them to say move in with us,
if not physically, but spiritually, the historical society of DC, the municipal archives, if
we come together in one space, the amount of content that we can put together is going
to be just absolutely phenomenal.
The digitization lab, the teaching, the discussion, you know, it would be such a wonderful nucleus
around which something like this digital platform can really thrive.
So, that's all I can say.
I want to thank Maura Marx for moving this conversation from New York City to just below
my office.
It makes things really convenient for me, and I'm really looking forward to the day.
Maura, I know how much work you put into these things, so thank you so much, and the IMLS
staff, just great work all around.
Thanks again.
(Applause.)
>>Maura Marx: Thank you, Rich.
Thank you for having us here.
We love this room.
We're going to be inspired by this room.
I'm Maura Marx.
I’m the acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and on behalf
of all of IMLS, our board member, Mary Minow, my colleagues and I welcome you here today.
We want to just thank you so much up front for taking time out of your busy lives to
join us in kicking off the first of three such convenings that we'll have over the next
several weeks, hopefully to talk about shared priorities for libraries.
This is the second year we're holding these IMLS convenings.
We found it so helpful last year to bring a group like this together and have an intense
conversation about our shared goals, and we're counting on your active participation to make
this year a success as well.
Your contributions basically help us do our work, and our work is to make smart, strategic
investments in libraries so that the American people have the best possible library services.
I'd like to extend a special welcome to those joining us on the live stream today.
Last year, we had over 800 participants that way, which was really awesome, so I'm hoping
we have a great, active group again today.
You can still actively participate via Twitter.
Our hashtag for today is IMLS focus.
That’s hash tag IMLS Focus.
We will be monitoring the tweets, and we'll feed them to moderators throughout the day,
so if you have comments or questions, please do pipe up, because we'll get you on the record
there.
At last year's national digital platform convening, a common theme emerged, which was that we
stand atop about 20 years of experimentation and innovation in digital libraries and that
now was the moment for us together to decide which of the results were the most viable
and most promising and to work together to build those out to focus on improving and
connecting those pieces.
We heard that we should double down and unite forces in aiming to bring fragmented pieces
of infrastructure, content, tools and services together into a national digital platform.
We and other funders were challenged to work more closely together and to require that
applicants would demonstrate how they fit in with pieces of the existing infrastructure,
such as the DPLA, the Haughty Trust, or the digital preservation network.
I'm happy to report that we've made some progress since then at IMLS.
We created a funding priority for the national digital platform with much more specific guidelines
than in the past.
We recently made the first round of awards focused on strengthening collaborations and
building out infrastructure, and we have another batch in process as we speak.
I think it's useful to point out that this idea of a national digital platform is resonating
beyond the library community.
The president's 2016 budget request for IMLS includes a targeted increase for this priority,
specifically an additional $8.8 million supports a national digital platform, it's not passed
yet, which would be funded by the National Leadership Grants Program for libraries at
the level of $5.3 million and for museums at the level of $3.5 million.
This potential $8.8 million increase, I think, demonstrates the timeliness of this vision.
Back to our progress at IMLS.
We hired Trevor Owens.
Where are you, Trevor?(Applause.)
>>Maura Marx: Yay.
He's now senior program officer for the national digital platform at IMLS, and he together
with our amazing and talented staff members, Emily Reynolds, Terry Devo, Kim Okahara, and
Katie Murray, of course, put together today's program.
So, we have a team lead, and we're going to continue to build agency expertise in this
area.
We also have a working definition of national digital platform.
A lot of people want to know, what do you mean by national digital platform?
So, we have that working definition, and we're looking for your help in refining it.
We need to scope out components as well as gaps, but that's going to be addressed in
the first session.
So, before we get ahead of ourselves, I just want to do one more thing.
I want to recognize, again, for the benefit of our friends joining us online, some of
the organizations and partners who are here today so that people know who's having this
conversation.
Several of our key library associations are here.
We have the American Library Association, ALA, the Urban Library's Council, CASLA, the
Chief Officer of State Library Agencies are here, state librarian Ken Wigan from Connecticut,
also the Digital Library Federation, the DLF, CNI, Clifford, OCLC, whom we really neglected
to invite last year through a big mistake, and so we have several OCLC members here today
and we're very, very happy about that.
Clear is here.
I saw Chuck briefly.
Ithica SNR, Marcum is here, the DPLA is here, the Haughty Trust, the Pop Up Archive, History
Pen.
We look forward to your input.
We also welcome several funders and organizations who care deeply about the work of libraries,
including the Melon Foundation, the Kale Austin Foundation of Brewster, the Internet Archive,
the Aspen Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NHPRC.
Thank you all for joining us.
Like last year, we're delighted to welcome our colleagues from other federal institutions.
The National Archives is here, the archivist will join us around noon today.
The Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, David Mow is here.
I think Robert Movin in coming too.
We look forward to your participation.
So, there are many wonderful colleagues here.
I'm sorry I can't name you all, but we're thrilled to have such a group together.
The only funny thing is that no one has grown up because no one wants to sit in the front
row like the old days.
Okay, time for some housekeeping notes.
There's coffee out there.
There's a room where coffee and lunch will be served.
The restrooms are back near the elevator that you came in on.
I'll remind you that we are looking for your active contributions to this discussion, so
please speak into the microphones when you participate.
We have people around the room holding mics.
Please say your name and your organization so that we can get that on the record, and
with that, it's time to introduce our first session.
I'm going to ask Trevor to come up to the podium and introduce the panel.
Alright.
Thanks very much.
(Applause.)