Over 200 cultural heritage organizations from across the state of Minnesota have joined in the creation of the Minnesota Digital Library. Organizations review their collections of historical photographs, negatives, recordings, artwork, handwritten documents, maps, and other materials to see which is of the most value to them, their audiences, and people across the state and beyond. They also determine if they have time and personnel, either staff or volunteers, to complete a digitization project.
How Contributing Works
If the answer is yes, organizations shape a project selected from their available materials and submit an application to have their projects included in the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL). If the application is approved, MDL pays for the cost of having professionals scan the original objects according to well-established and very high standards. Copies of these digital master files are given to the contributing organization. MDL also accepts previously digitized or born-digital materials that meet our archival standards.
Once a project is scanned, the organization completes a spreadsheet to describe the items digitized so that they are findable online. The time it takes to compile and complete this information is the organizations' in-kind contribution to the Minnesota Digital Library. Once this metadata is finished, the project is added to the collection database and is available through the website.
Thank You!
We are grateful to all of the contributors to the Minnesota Digital Library, past, present, and future. By working with us to share their unique cultural resources with MDL, and through MDL with the larger world, these organizations are helping to tell the rich history of our state in an accessible way.