Unlocking Stories: Community Digitization Projects in the Region

ScanDays are events hosted with or in North Dakota libraries that invite community members to bring their personal or their organization’s historical artifacts—photos, letters, memorabilia, and more—to digitize. The North Dakota State Library staff provides the scanning and photography equipment and manages the ScanDay program.

This session will guide you through planning and hosting a successful public scanning event, from outreach and logistics to building trust and encouraging participation. By the end, you’ll understand how to foster collaboration between your library/organization and the community to uncover hidden local treasures, while deepening connections with those you serve.

Scan for Keeps is a digitization kit loan program of the Minnesota Digital Library. The kits are used by all types of organizations in Minnesota to digitize local history collections, encourage community engagement, and foster preservation education.

Hear how three different organizations used the kits to offer free scanning events where participants digitized their personal photos and documents. Presenters will share the specifics of how they organized their event/s, trained staff and volunteers to run it, promoted the events, and the impact on their communities. Presenters will also share their strategies for building relationships through these events, encouraging contributions to shared local history collections while respecting individual ownership and privacy.
 

Explore how to design and implement digitization stations in your library, making local history accessible and creating opportunities for lifelong learning.

The panel of presenters will cover the essentials of getting started with public digitization stations, including selecting equipment, offering instructional resources, workflow recommendations for scanning and cataloging materials, community engagement efforts, and measuring impact and sustainability. Join us to learn how these spaces can be used for community building, promoting lifelong learning, and enabling individuals to contribute to the preservation of shared cultural heritage.