Digital Public Library of America

Have you ever wondered about fair use? When does copyright law allow use of copyrighted material without permission? The PA Digital Rights team is hosting a free Zoom workshop on Wednesday, May 27 at 11 a.m. EST.

You'll learn about U.S. copyright law’s fair use doctrine and how it applies. Danielle Steinhart from the Penn State University Libraries Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright will teach the workshop.

Register in advance on Zoom here:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: PA Digital Rights - Fair Use Workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: PA Digital Rights - Fair Use Workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

As we continue to explore the newest additions to DPLA, this collection from the American Jewish Historical Society caught our attention.

Mordecai Sheftall was a famed privateer, patriot, and the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Serving as Assistant Deputy Commissary of Issues for Georgia, he was responsible for purchasing and distributing food to Continental soldiers; often out of his own pocket, as the nascent government lacked the funds to supply its own army.

His war records are carefully preserved in the Mordecai Sheftall Papers, which span 1761–1873 and include nearly 2,800 "provision returns": handwritten receipts documenting supplies to Georgia and South Carolina regiments in 1777–1778. These records represent an unglamorous but essential part of waging a revolution.

As AJHS notes, however, the full story of Sheftall's life, like that of so many patriots of his era, cannot be told without acknowledging that his prosperity depended on the trafficking of enslaved people. This remarkable collection bears witness to that history too.

🔗 https://dp.la/item/3beb3f27c79689368fd9b1e1d1be1d62
ℹ️ Explore the Mordecai Shetfall papers: https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/1659
📖 Read “A Brief and Fascinating History of Jewish Privateer Mordecai Sheftall” by Isabel Watkins https://ajhs.org/a-brief-and-fascinating-history-of-jewish-privateer-mordecai-sheftall/
From the American Jewish Historical Society Mordecai Sheftall Papers and protected by copyright. Thank you to our partner the Jewish Heritage and History Hub, and to contributor The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), for sharing this collection.

Discover more items from our newest partners: https://dp.la/news/were-welcoming-two-new-hubs-to-the-network

Portrait of Mordecai Sheftall retrieved from Jewish American Military Historical Society.
Alt text: Handwritten provision return on aged paper, listing quantities of beef, rice, and salt, dated September 16, 1778, documenting supplies for the artificers of the 3rd Georgia Continental Battalion, signed by Rains Cook for six men, from the Mordecai Sheftall Papers.

Grateful to speak with Library Journal to discuss our partnership with Cleveland Public Library.

Cleveland Public Library Partners with DPLA on National Digital Archive Cleveland Public Library (CPL) and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) have announced their partnership on a national digital collection of more than 53 million books, photos, maps, videos, and more, from 6,000 libraries and museums across the country. The initiative was announced at the Kn...

We’re excited to share that the Digital Public Library of America has received a $1.1 million grant from Humanity AI to ensure that libraries play a central role in shaping how artificial intelligence enters public life. Read more: https://dp.la/news/dpla-to-put-libraries-at-the-center-of-the-ai-age

The newest additions to DPLA continue to surprise and move us, like this remarkable piece of correspondence: On Oct. 12, 1948, members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority penned a letter to Gladys Noel Bates — a Black school teacher and active officer of the Jackson NAACP — to encourage her in her landmark legal fight.

That year, Bates had filed Gladys Noel Bates vs. the State of Mississippi, to demand equal pay for Black teachers. It was the first civil rights lawsuit in Mississippi history and a forerunner to the school desegregation cases of the 1950s. This letter is a testament to the solidarity that sustained that work.

🔗 https://dp.la/item/007340d6279a8c6c65730b62f82b999c

From the Tougaloo College Bates (Gladys Noel) Papers and protected by copyright and/or related rights. Thank you to our partner Mississippi Digital Library, and to contributor Mississippi Department of Archives & History, for sharing this item.
Discover more items from our newest partners: https://dp.la/news/were-welcoming-two-new-hubs-to-the-network



Photo of Gladys Noel Bates retrieved from Mississippi Today.

Alt text: Handwritten letter on Tougaloo College stationery from members of Gamma Psi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority to Gladys Noel Bates, dated October 12, 1948, expressing support for her equal pay legal challenge on behalf of Black teachers in Mississippi.

May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day or May Day, honoring labor rights. We'd like to point you to this exhibition from the Lawrence History Center, which showcases the Bread and Roses Strike of 1912.

A new Massachusetts law had reduced the maximum number of hours of work per week for women and children from 56 to 54, effective January 1, 1912. On January 11, workers discovered their employers had reduced their weekly pay to match the reduction in their hours. That difference in wages amounted to several loaves of bread a week.

Learn more about the strike that changed labor history: https://dp.la/exhibitions/breadandroses/workerslife

Photo: A group of women who work together in the Ayer Mill Mending Room, Lawrence, Mass., 1909.

Lawrence History Center, University of Massachusetts Lowell History Department. Bread and Roses Strike of 1912: Two Months in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that Changed Labor History. Digital Public Library of America. April 2013. https://dp.la/exhibitions/breadandroses.

Our new partners are bringing incredible history to DPLA collections. Check out this image from the Mississippi Library Commission: Librarians Mary Proucis and Linda Poy Gates, photographed beside a Natchez-Adams County Public Library bookmobile during "Operation Chlorine" in 1962, when seven chlorine tanks were found in the Mississippi River amid the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Civil Defense ordered citizens in the area to wear gas masks — and local librarians helped distribute and demonstrate them. A striking reminder that librarians rise to the moment, whatever that moment demands.

Thank you Mississippi Digital Library for the contribution!

🔗 https://dp.la/item/9fb0e17966e75f1561a24a92f091e083

This is just one of the new local history items now discoverable through DPLA from our newest partners. Head to our blog to meet them: https://dp.la/news/were-welcoming-two-new-hubs-to-the-network



Alt text: Historic photo of two women wearing gas masks standing beside a Natchez-Adams County Public Library bookmobile during a public safety response in Natchez, Mississippi, 1962.

It's National Library Week. We're incredibly grateful for libraries and librarians and archivists within them for maximizing access to our shared history, culture, and knowledge. Pictured here: Mildred L. Terry at Georgia's first African American library, opened in 1953.

Photo from Digital Library of Georgia; Chattahoochee Valley Libraries.

We are thrilled to welcome two new Hubs to the DPLA Hub network: the Jewish Heritage and History Hub, a partnership between the Jewish Heritage Network and the Center for Jewish History, and the Mississippi Digital Library. Together, these Hubs bring more than 60,000 items into DPLA.

Read more details: https://dp.la/news/were-welcoming-two-new-hubs-to-the-network

We're hosting a Zoom demo session of the Analytics Dashboard. You'll get to share your feedback in real time. RSVP for Thursday, April 23: https://dpla.zoom.us/meeting/register/sAHymyqOQxOZMi7ZyDr3BA #/registration