Contribute to Minnesota Reflections

More than 90 organizations from across the state of Minnesota have joined in the creation of Minnesota Reflections. They examine their collections of historical photographs, negatives, artwork, handwritten documents, and maps to see which is of the most value to them, their public, and people across the state. They also decide if they have time and staff or volunteers to do the project planning and then to describe their collections once the digitizing is complete.

How Contributing Works

Organizations apply to the Minnesota Digital Library to have their projects included in Minnesota Reflections. Minnesota Digital Library grants pay for the cost of having professionals scan the original objects according to well-established and very high standards.

Once projects are scanned, the organizations complete a spreadsheet to describe the photographs, transcribe handwritten documents, and correct information. This work takes many hours. That time is the organizations' contribution to creating Minnesota Reflections. The MDL then adds their projects to its growing database of digitized copies of primary historical objects and makes them freely available to the public.

A Collaborative Effort

Most of our contributing organizations operate on limited financial resources, most with the benefit of volunteers. In fact, without strong volunteer work forces, many would not be able to participate in creating Minnesota Reflections. For many, it will be a long time before they can do their own digitization. Now, with the help of the MDL, they have collections online for people to use and they have started building a collection that helps people see how each organization fits into the story of the state of Minnesota.