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C&RL News April 2017 226

Carrie Russell is director of the Program on Public 
Access to Information, ALA’s Washington Office, email: 
crussell@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCarrie Russell

More access to more digitized 
materials
The Library of Congress (LC) has initiated 
a significant partnership to share digitized 
materials unique to the LC with the Digital 
Public Library of America (DPLA). This is 
the first official collaboration made with 
DPLA and reflects the new Librarian of 
Congress Carla Hayden’s commitment to 
greatly expand access to the LC collec-
tion—the world’s largest library. 

DPLA provides a portal to all the col-
lections submitted from more than 2,000 
libraries, museums, archives, and universi-
ties. Many resources found in DPLA can be 
downloaded and are a boon for students, 
educators, and faculty to use for educational 
purposes. DPLA has also curated educational 
sets of primary source materials that can 
shape curricula. 

The LC will serve as a “content hub 
partner” along with other libraries with mas-
sive collections like the Harvard University 
Library. All hub partners are responsible for 
curating, digitizing, and maintaining digital 
content and metadata, so the commitment is 
an ongoing one. Five thousand items have 
already been shared with DPLA, including 
maps from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars 
and panoramic maps. Other collections 
will be added, including photos and sheet 
music. Ultimately, a significant percentage 
of the entire LC collection will be digitized 
and available from both the LC website and 
through DPLA.  

Copyright award nominations open
ALA is accepting nominations for the 2017 
L. Ray Patterson award, which recognizes 
particular individuals or groups who “em-
body the spirit of the U.S. copyright law as 
voiced by the framers of our Constitution: 
to advance the knowledge of science and 
useful arts.” 

Appropriate nominees for the Patterson 
Award are persons or groups who—over a 
stretch in time—have made significant and 
consistent contributions in the areas of aca-
demia, law, politics, public policy, libraries, or 
library education to the pursuit of copyright 
principles. Letters of nomination outlining a 
candidate’s qualifications for this award can 
be submitted by email to Carrie Russell at 
crussell@alawash.org. Nominations will be 
accepted through May 15, 2017. 

Staff developments in Washington 
Office  
Right after welcoming Emily Wagner as the 
new information manager in January, Emily 
Sheketoff, executive director of ALA’s Wash-
ington Office, announced her retirement af-
ter 17 years heading the office. At the same 
time, a search is also underway for a lobby-
ist in the Office of Government Relations to 
replace Jessica McGilvray, who left in Feb-
ruary after more than nine years of service. 
Search committees hope to fill the positions 
before the ALA Annual Conference in July. 

In the meantime, you are invited to honor 
Emily and recognize her accomplishments 
in advocating for libraries with ALA at a 
reception during the 2017 National Library 
Legislative Days (May 1-2) in Washington, 
D.C. Register for the event at districtdispatch.
org.