University of Colorado Boulder Libraries Join Digital Public Library of America

Thousands of historic collection items held by the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries are now available for researchers to access through the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). 

The DPLA makes millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions across the United States available through one searchable database. The University Libraries partnered with the DPLA’s Colorado-Wyoming service hub, the Plains to Peaks Collective (PPC), effectively broadening the scope of complimentary regional collections. 

By sharing over 43,600 historic collection items with the DPLA, more researchers may find entry points into dozens of collections highlighting historic environmental maps and photography, physics research reports and contracts, women in rodeo and more. 

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Notable digital collections now available through the DPLA include the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Glacier Photograph Collection, the Rocky Flats Collection, the CU Museum of Natural History’s Vertebrate Collection Documentation, the Clifford P. and Therese S. Westermier Digital Collection which highlights regional Rocky Mountain women in rodeo, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Colorado.

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“The demand for digitization has increased exponentially in the last 10 years as more and more people expect a wide variety of resources to be available online,” said Ashlyn Velte, interim head of the University Libraries Archives. “”In the archives, we know it’s important to make more of our collections available online in a world that is more digitally connected than ever.“