Log in
About Us
Forgot password

Why Join?

Collections

  • Membership dues go towards developing a significant digital resource that provides access to important cultural, educational and historical collections. By being a member of Digital Commonwealth, you are helping to preserve our cultural and historical heritage!
  • Once your materials are digitized, there are ongoing costs for storage and management of hosted collections.  Digital Commonwealth contributes to these costs by means of an annual donation to the Library for the Commonwealth program through the Boston Public Library (BPL).
  • The Library for the Commonwealth program is funded by the state. Our membership numbers help BPL to justify continued funding of this valuable program.
  • There are also costs associated with planning for and implementing growth of the collection that our annual contribution also goes toward.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Membership


Digital Commonwealth is the hub to DPLA for Massachusetts. Digital Commonwealth became a full member of DPLA in July 2018 and pays $10,000 in annual dues on behalf of its members. Members each contribute a small fraction of that amount from their Digital Commonwealth membership fees. DPLA offers benefits to its member hubs, which we can pass on to our members. A few are highlighted here:

  • Our collection is currently ingested into DPLA 3-4 times per year.  Material from new DC members can be aggregated and fast tracked into DPLA, providing increased worldwide exposure for your collections. If you have new data to contribute, please contact digital@bpl.org about including your content in the upcoming ingest.  

  • DC member institutions can participate in DPLA’s new eBook program, SimplyE, which provides libraries with a single patron app for accessing content from multiple vendors (e.g. OverDrive, Biblioteca etc) making it easier for patrons to discover and read!  To find out more about DPLA’s ebook work, visit https://pro.dp.la/ebooks, or email info@dp.la.

  • DPLA offers a number of free webinars quarterly. To find out about upcoming webinars you can sign up on the DPLA mailing list at the bottom of their home page. 

  • As part of our hubs member benefits, DPLA provides very detailed analytics to show how much your content is being viewed, and from what geographic location.  These reports are available online by your hub representative.

  • DPLA has a number of working groups that welcomes members from the hub.  You can find a list of the current working groups and their charge at https://pro.dp.la/hubs/dpla-working-groups. Contact the working group chair listed if you are interested in joining the group and to learn more about their work.

For a full list of DPLA benefits and the member program, click here. These benefits are only available if you are a member organization of Digital Commonwealth since access is only provided through state hubs.

Conference and Events


Digital Commonwealth hosts an Annual Conference and a number of member events throughout the year.

  • Members are offered a discount for all events
  • New in 2019, we will be offering free VIP tours four times per year, for small groups of members to visit the Boston Public Library Digitization Lab. These tours will be accompanied by a Digital Commonwealth Board Member. You’ll be invited to chat and ask questions about Digital Commonwealth over complimentary coffee before the tour and receive a free DC mug!


Nurturing Future Librarians


Digital Commonwealth believes it is important to invest in the next generation of Library and Information Sciences professionals.

  • We offer multiple scholarships to allow full time students to attend our Annual Conference

Not a member of Digital Commonwealth? Join here
Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software