digitization – CRPLSA

ECRL photo makes MN Reflections calendar

This photo of the old bookmobile in Stanchfield was selected as a cover shot for the MN Reflections 2017 calendar.

In May 1960, a photograph was taken of people standing in line for the East Central Regional Library bookmobile in Stanchfield. More than 50 years later, that image and many more like it live on thanks to a unique project in Minnesota.

East Central Regional Library (ECRL) last year announced its first digital collection of historical images in Minnesota Digital Library’s Minnesota Reflections, courtesy of the Digital Public Library of America’s Public Library Partnerships Project. ECRL’s contribution to the Reflections project provides insight into the oldest existing multi-county regional public library system in Minnesota.

The ECRL collection includes images used in ECRL’s history book, East Central Regional Library: Fifty Years of Connections, 1959-2009, by Marilyn McGriff. One photograph, the one showing the ECRL bookmobile line at Stanchfield, was even selected as a cover shot for the Minnesota Digital Library’s Minnesota Reflections 2017 calendar. Download your copy here.

Digital images from GRRL

The Great River Regional Library (GRRL) recently participated in a joint project with Minnesota Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America.

MDL sought content on the history of libraries in Minnesota and GRRL provided exterior and interior images of the St. Cloud Public Library’s original Carnegie building, built in 1902 and torn down in 1981, images of St. Cloud’s second library building, in use from 1979 to 2009, its Bookmobile, the Little Falls Public Library, and the Royalton Community Library.

Two of the GRRL images were selection for DPLA’s online exhibition, “A History of US Public Libraries,” in the Carnegie libraries section.

View GRRL’s digital library history

ECRL Art in Digital Library

The Minnesota Digital Library is thrilled to announce East Central Regional Library’s (ECRL) Kids Design Glass is a recent addition to Minnesota Reflections. This Library Legacy project is now fully documented in Minnesota Reflections with scans of the original 14 drawings, the artist statements, photographs of the sculpture, and a short video of each sculpture rotating on a turntable.

Kids Design Glass was funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Fund and began with a summer reading program art contest. The contest was open to kids ages 5 to 10. One drawing was chosen from each of ECRL’s 14 branches. The winning drawings were transformed into three-dimensional blown-glass sculptures by Anthony Michaud-Scorza of Cambridge, Minnesota.

View the digital ECRL collection

Trib to be added to Hub

State Library Services has announced an agreement with Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) that will integrate the Minneapolis Tribune (1867-1922) into its Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub. The Newspaper Hub is a searchable website that makes hundreds of thousands of pages of Minnesota newspapers available online. The Hub contains geographically and culturally diverse newspapers.

The Minnesota Historical Society will review the data and establish a work plan for the integration of the paper into the Hub. Jane Wong, MHS Central Collections Services Manager, is leading these efforts. For specific information about this agreement, contact Jennifer Nelson, Director, State Library Services or Jennifer Jones, Director, Library and Collections at the Minnesota Historical society.

MHS Offer Newspaper Hub

The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) is pleased to introduce the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub, a new searchable website that makes hundreds of thousands of pages of Minnesota newspapers available online in one central resource.

The Hub offers geographically and culturally diverse newspapers from dozens of communities around the state. Users will also find a unique selection of African American, American Indian, agricultural, business, and labor papers.

MHS created the Hub in collaboration with the Minnesota Newspaper Association. MHS began digitizing its historic newspapers in 2007 through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Digital Newspaper Program.

As an active partner, SELCO has used Arts and Cultural Heritage Funds for Library Legacy activities to digitize almost 180,000 pages from newspapers published in the southeastern Minnesota counties. SELCO continues to focus on adding regional resources. MHS is committed to adding thousands of newspaper pages each year.

Minitex seeks public libraries for digital project

Minitex is looking for public libraries with collections of historic images or 1- or 2-page documents (maps, etc.) that would be of sufficient quality and interest to digitize for inclusion in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA ).

Minitex has been awarded a DPLA grant from the Gates Foundation. The grant will provide training and support for public libraries to participate in DPLA through Minnesota Digital Library (MDL).

Following the parameters of the grant, Minitex will host three training sessions in upcoming months to prepare and enable public libraries to contribute content to the DPLA through the MDL. In these workshops, public library staff will learn how to work with MDL to select content for digitization and/or identify existing digital content and have MDL digitize and provide metadata and contextualization for that content, and determine potential themes for DPLA Exhibitions. The training will be free and costs for scanning and much of the metadata creation will be covered by the grant.

In Minnesota, most local historic and archival collections are held by local historical societies. Minitex needs information about local library resources. Specifically — Does a library have:

Historic or archival material that would be appropriate for this sort of project?
A close relationship with the local historical society such that someone from the library might be able to facilitate a collaborative project with the historical society and their materials?

For more information or to suggest a library with historic items to contribute email Carla Urban, at Minitex/MDL or contact her via phone, 612-624-4002 or 800-462-5348.