In terms of copyright, 2014 was a big year for libraries. The highlights were the release of decisions in two major copyright cases on appeal, largely in favor of library uses and affirming the applicability of fair use to certain aspects of digitization. Other developments, such as the release of a new code of best practices in fair use of collections containing orphan works, have created opportunities for libraries and other memory institutions to make further progress on addressing copyright obstacles to digital access to their collections. Before the first open committee call of the year for the DPLA Legal Committee (which is later today at 2:00pm Eastern), now is a good time for a short recap what we’ve seen over the last year and what we can expect in 2015.

Registration for DPLAfest 2015 is now open! DPLAfest brings together the full range of the cultural heritage sector to discuss everything from technology and development, to content, law, and education. DPLAfest will appeal to librarians, archivists, museum professionals, developers and technologists, publishers and authors, teachers and students, and members of the public alike who are interested in an engaging mix of interactive workshops, hackathons, engaging discussions with community leaders and practitioners, fun events, and so much more.

On January 22, at 2 pm eastern, we will be hosting a webinar about metadata aggregation. We’ll be taking an inside look at aggregation best practices at two of our DPLA Service Hubs in North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition, DPLA has been working on improving our existing tools as well as creating some new ones for metadata aggregation and quality control.We’d like to share what’s in place and preview some of our plans and we hope to get feedback on future directions.

There’s no better way to wrap up a busy year than with a showcase of awesome GIFs made from open materials. Over the past couple of months we’ve had tons of fun running the GIF IT UP competition with our good friends at DigitalNZ. Thank you to everyone who entered!

The DPLA Board of Directors call will hold an open call on Monday, December 15, at 3:00 PM Eastern.

The DPLA Technical Advisory Committee will lead an open committee call on Wednesday, December 3 at 2:00 PM Eastern.

It’s been a little over a month since we launched GIF IT UP, an international competition to find the best GIFs reusing public domain and openly licensed digital video, images, text, and other material available via our search portals. Since then we’ve received dozens of wonderful submissions from all over the world. The winners will have their work featured and celebrated online at the Public Domain Review and Smithsonian.com. What are you waiting for? Submit a GIF today!

The DPLA Board of Directors’ Governance Committee will hold an executive session conference call on Wednesday, November 12, 2014. The purpose of the call is to discuss a slate of Board nominees and to come up with next steps. Pursuant to DPLA’s open meetings guidelines, this call will be closed to the public, as the Board Governance subcommittee will deliberate and consider matters of personnel.

The DPLA’s Marketing and Outreach Committee will lead an open committee call on Friday, November 7 at 2:00 PM Eastern.

It’s a public domain celebration! The Digital Public Library of America and DigitalNZ are holding GIF IT UP, an international competition over the next six weeks to find the best GIFs reusing public domain and openly licensed digital video, images, text, and other material available via our search portals. The winners will have their work featured and celebrated online at the Public Domain Review and Smithsonian.com. Pretty sweet, huh?

The Content Strategy Committee will hold an open call on Wednesday, October 1 at 2:00 PM EDT. Registration and agenda information can be found here.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce that Indianapolis, Indiana will serve as host city for its second-ever DPLAfest celebration, taking place on April 17-18, 2015. Area institutions serving as co-hosts to DPLAfest 2015 include the Indianapolis Public Library, the Indiana State Library, the IUPUI University Library, and the Indiana Historical Society.

The Technical Advisory Committee will hold an open call on Tuesday, September 23 at 1:00 PM EDT. The agenda is now available.

The DPLA Board and its Finance Committee each held an open conference call in September 2014. Both of these calls were open to the public.

A cross-posted blogpost from the Imgur.com blog (published on September 8, 2014). Thanks, Imgur, for having us this summer!

The Legal Committee will hold an open call on Wednesday, September 3 at 2:00 PM EDT. Registration info and the call’s agenda are now available.

The DPLA Board of Directors’ Governance Committee will hold a conference call on July 9, 2014 at 1:00 PM Eastern. The call is open to the public.

The third installment of DPLA’s Summer of Archives is all about maps — the quirky, the cool, and the downright beautiful. All images and descriptive text are courtesy the David Rumsey Historic Map Collection.

This is a reminder that our next open committee call will take place on Wednesday, July 2 at 2:00 PM Eastern.

Mark your calendars! We’re pleased to announce that DPLAfest 2015—our second celebration of all-things DPLA—will take place on April 17-18, 2015. The two-day public event, set to coincide with DPLA’s second birthday, will bring together hundreds of people from our large and growing community of librarians, archivists, and museum professionals, developers and technologists, publishers and authors, teachers and students, and members of the public for interactive workshops, hackathons, engaging discussions with community leaders and practitioners, fun events, and so much more.