Kenning Arlitsch
Dean of the Library
Montana State University
Michael Della Bitta
Director of Technology
Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) launched in 2013 and has since grown to include records for 40 million objects digitized from cultural heritage collections. DPLA currently hosts thumbnail images and metadata, but not display objects; users are referred to the hosting repositories to view those objects, and that model results in low indexing of DPLA by Internet search engines like Google. A proof-of-concept project conducted by the presenters in summer 2021 demonstrated that Google will indeed index collections from the DPLA domain when they include display objects. This presentation is intended to begin a conversation about our collective reluctance to contribute the digital objects that would create a more full-featured Digital Public Library of America.