Participation in the TDL DPLA Aggregation Service

Requirements for inclusion

Participation in the TDL DPLA Aggregation Service is available to Regular Members of the Texas Digital Library, and to DPLA Affiliate Members.

Requirements of participation:

  • Active Regular Member or DPLA Affiliate Member contract
  • Submission of letter of permission to Texas Digital Library to allow harvesting (template here)
  • Payment of associated fees (see below)
  • Designated staff to work in consultation with TDL staff to ensure appropriate metadata mapping of repository collections and to serve as point of contact for ongoing harvests
  • Willingness to allow metadata to be made accessible under a CC0 license through DPLA. Note that this requirement only applies to the metadata, not to the digital objects themselves.
  • Digital collections that meet the following criteria:
    • Collections that meet DPLA's Collection Development Guidelines. Note that TxHub only aggregates collections of cultural heritage materials.
      • TxHub does not currently aggregate theses and dissertations, faculty works, or other scholarly publications. Nor do we encourage the inclusion of serialized content such as newspapers, or of archival finding aids described at the box or folder level.
    • Ability to provide metadata through OAI-PMH
      • Many repository platforms, including DSpace, CONTENTdm, Digital Commons, and Islandora, meet this requirement. TDL staff can help determine if your system provides OAI-PMH functionality.
    • Availability of items on a publicly-accessible site (i.e., no paywalls, IP restrictions, or required log-ins)
    • Ability to store and provide preview or thumbnail images of the objects (this is a common feature in most systems)
    • Ability to provide a link back to the object on your digital collection site
    • Ability to supply required metadata fields as outlined in the TDL DPLA Metadata Guidelines. At minimum, every record needs to have a Title and either a Rights or Standardized Rights Statement field.

Associated fees

Regular members of TDL:

DPLA Aggregation is available as a service module for Regular and Consortial Members. (See the TDL website for more about Regular membership)

The service is available for an annual fee, with an additional setup fee in the first year:


Annual FeeSetup fee (one-time)
Large Research Institutions (Founding ARL And High Research Institutions)$500$2,500
All Other Institutions$250$1,000

Affiliate members:

Institutions may also participate by becoming a DPLA Affiliate Member. Affiliate members use only one service provided by TDL and do not participate in TDL governance or have other benefits of full (Regular) membership.


Annual FeeSetup fee (one-time)
Affiliate Member$1,000$5,000