Lyrasis to Take Over Library Ebook Platform, The Palace Project, from Digital Public Library of America

Some five years after it was chartered, the Palace Project—the upstart, library-led digital lending platform for ebooks and audiobooks co-created by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Lyrasis—is beginning a new chapter. In a release this week, officials said that the venture will now be solely owned and operated by Lyrasis, the nonprofit tech provider chartered to support libraries, archives, and museums.

“In creating the DPLA Exchange in 2017, DPLA pioneered a library-friendly ebook marketplace where people could download books anytime,” Lyrasis CEO John Wilkin said, in a statement. “Together, DPLA and Lyrasis built on that success to create Palace as an ebook platform owned and managed by libraries. Lyrasis will continue to enhance and grow Palace by adding functionality, streamlining the buying experience for libraries, adding more publishers and content, and more models for ownership and licensing.”

Lyrasis and DPLA officials said they will work together to ensure a smooth transition in the coming months. As part of the transition, Micah May, previously DPLA’s Director of Ebooks, will move to Lyrasis where he will assume the role of Director, Business Development for Ebooks & Community Engagement, focusing on “publisher partnerships and content strategy.”

Built using an open source code designed and developed by Library Simplified for the New York Public Library’s SimplyE app, the Palace Project has been supported by grants from a host of funders, including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Institute of Museum and Library Service, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It’s goal: to create a “library-centric” platform to support “equitable access to e-content,” in the still relatively young, evolving, and sometimes contentious digital library market, where access to content is mostly licensed and dominated by corporate actors.

 The move will allow DPLA, chartered in 2013 as a nationwide effort to increase access to digital content, to clear the decks and move on to other projects.

"DPLA is proud to have been part of creating the nation’s first digital content platform designed for and by libraries. Now, we’re excited to hand it to Lyrasis, which will continue to empower librarians to serve readers," said DPLA executive director John Bracken, in a statement. "Establishing Palace fully within Lyrasis will enable DPLA to take up new efforts to advance our mission to maximize access to information in new ways.”

DPLA and Lyrasis will share more about the transition during its Ebook Friday program at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia, set for June 27, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 103 BC.