TCDL 2026

The Texas Digital Library (TDL) and The Portal to Texas History have partnered to develop the TxHub, a statewide service that aggregates and normalizes metadata from cultural heritage institutions across Texas and contributes those records to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Through this collaboration, Texas institutions are connected to a national discovery platform that now includes more than 53 million records from 44 content and service hubs, representing thousands of libraries, archives, museums, and other collecting organizations across the United States.

This Birds-of-a-Feather session will introduce the TxHub program and the collaborative work behind it, highlighting how TDL and The Portal support institutions in sharing their digital collections more broadly. The discussion will cover participation models, technical and metadata considerations, and the benefits of contributing to both the statewide aggregation and the larger DPLA ecosystem.

Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, share their own experiences with metadata aggregation and digital collection visibility, and explore practical ways to get involved. We will also discuss how institutions can leverage DPLA’s aggregated metadata for local discovery, research, digital scholarship, and outreach.