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Statement of Values

Adopted by the Board on October 19, 2021

Digital Commonwealth (DC) is a non-profit collaborative organization, founded in 2006, created by the collaboration between the Boston Public Library and the Digital Public Library of America.


DC provides support for the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives. Access to knowledge and information is core to the purpose and structure of the Digital Commonwealth.  Digital Commonwealth seeks to recognize and acknowledge any historical, structural, and systemic injustice within its collections.  Digital Commonwealth is also committed to being proactive in national efforts to end the spread of misinformation.


Digital Commonwealth strives to provide an inclusive, welcoming, and respectful environment serving the information needs of all members of society.  The organization commits to the following values to achieve an equitable, accurate, diverse, and inclusive process.


We commit to the following values and process:


  • To encourage and strive to foster community, collaboration, and knowledge sharing between cultural heritage institutions.

  • DC acknowledges the historical legacy of systemic inequity in any and all power structures inherent in library, archives, and museum organizations relative to their collection development, cataloging and description, and other information management practices that limit access and understanding of materials. 

  • DC aims to increase the diversity, depth, and breadth of digital collections shared by Massachusetts cultural heritage institutions, with an emphasis on increased representation of historically and presently marginalized groups, both in the collections and in conversations about how the collections can be used. We recognize that increasing visibility should only occur when it is desired. 

  • To ensure that the mission, values, hiring practices, cultural impact, and economic impact of any vendors or consultants hired using membership dues, or other conference/workshop/event attendance fees align with DC values, processes, and fair and equitable labor practices.

  • To assess and reevaluate these values routinely to make sure they are aligned with DC’s mission and scope of work.


Statement on Black Lives Matter

Adopted by the Board on June 16, 2020

The Digital Commonwealth Board of Directors condemns racial oppression and police violence. As a nonprofit membership-based organization of over 200 cultural institutions, our materials collectively witness documented histories of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The study of history can be an effective tool against racism and can support better understanding of the experience of Black people. However, archives are not neutral; they are created by people and reflect the power structures that those people are influenced by and participate in. We must choose what our non-neutrality means.

In this moment, we specifically affirm that Black lives matter and that we support efforts to dismantle oppression and injustice. In the coming year we will:

  • Collaborate with our Council of Members to create actionable, measurable, and sustainable plans to make explicit and tangible our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion of marginalized communities and identities.
  • Expand our outreach to organizations and communities that document and collect materials about the experiences of people of color.
  • Increase our efforts to highlight existing collections related to racial oppression and resistance.
  • Provide updates on the progress of this work at least quarterly.

Digital Commonwealth’s Board of Directors is aligned with recent statements from our partners, which include links to additional resources:

Land Acknowledgement Statement

Adopted by the Board on June 16, 2020

As part of Digital Commonwealth’s mission to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials, we must acknowledge Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of the land, and the enduring relationship that exists between them and their traditional territories. We acknowledge that the boundaries that created Massachusetts were arbitrary and a product of the settlers. We honor the land on which the Digital Commonwealth member institutions sit as the traditional territory of tribal nations. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from their territory, and other atrocities connected with colonization. We honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people connected to this land on which we gather, and our acknowledgement is one action we can take to correct the stories and practices that erase Indigenous People’s history and culture. 

Identified tribes and/or nations of Massachusetts


Historical nations:

  • Mahican

  • Mashpee 

  • Massachuset

  • Nauset

  • Nipmuc 

  • Pennacook

  • Pocomtuc

  • Stockbridge 

  • Wampanoag 

Present day nations and tribes:

In the event that we have an incorrect link or are missing an existing band/nation, please let us know so that we may correct our error. 

Suggested readings

Land Acknowledgement — Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness

A guide to Indigenous land acknowledgment

‘We are all on Native Land: A conversation about Land Acknowledgements’ YouTube video 

Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land (mapping of native lands) 

Beyond territorial acknowledgments – âpihtawikosisân

Your Territorial Acknowledgment Is Not Enough



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