We are now accepting applications for Phase 15 of the Minnesota Reflections project! As in past phases, we are looking for materials in, of, or about Minnesota and Minnesotans and we accept many types of formats, such as images, text, audio, and video. New this year is the opportunity to submit materials to be used in a Primary Source Set, our topic-focused initiative for students, teachers, and general researchers.
This past May, the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) held its first two regional meetings, one in the southern half of the state (St. Peter), and one in the northern half (Duluth). Both meetings were well-attended, and participants engaged in a full day of presentations, planning, and interactive discussion time, with lots of variety in structure and format.
On Friday, June 1st, Carleton College hosted their third annual Day of Digital Humanities at the Weitz Center for Creativity in Northfield. Carleton's Day of DH is a regional conference meant to highlight the work of those engaged in digital scholarship in the upper midwest. MDL Outreach Coordinator Molly Huber was one of the morning's lightning round presenters, speaking about MDL's new initiatives including the addition of geospatial metadata to Minnesota Reflections, the creation of primary source sets, and the implementation of standardized rights statements.
During the first week of June, I headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico to teach at the 2018 Summer Educational Institute (SEI). SEI is an annual, residential workshop co-sponsored by the Visual Resources Association Foundation and the Art Libraries Society of North America. SEI provides new and emerging information professionals with a substantive educational and professional development opportunity focused on digital collections, project management, digital preservation, intellectual property, digital humanities, and metadata for digital collections.
The Minitex Scan for Keeps equipment lending program will soon have a new kit for loan! Due to several requests, we are adding a scanner capable of capturing large format documents and images, up to 11" x 17". Like our other scanning kits, this kit will include various accessories and a laptop.
I recently attended and presented at two Minnesota Library Association's division conferences: the Public Libraries Division (PLD) Day on April 13 and the Academic and Research Libraries Division (ARLD) Day on April 27. At each of these conferences I presented on the work I have been doing with the Minnesota Reflections Primary Source Sets. I included an overview of the project, current titles, and introduced ways people can get involved in the project.
I am pleased to share the important work MDL recently completed in conjunction with a contractor at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Lindsey Geyer's recent project addressed the name change from Lake Calhoun to Bde Maka Ska, and now the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's records reflect that change. Here is Lindsey's account of this project.
Registration is now open for the 2018 MDL Regional Meetings! Please join us on either Wednesday, May 9th at Gustavus Adolphus College's Folke Bernadotte Library in St.
MDL Outreach Coordinator Molly Huber and MDL Metadata Librarian Greta Bahnemann presented the session Minnesota Digital Library: Today and Tomorrow at the 2018 Library Technology Conference. Content included the history of MDL itself, stretching back to the early 2000's, an update on the recent launch of the Rights Statements Standardization pilot project, the MDL Geospatial Metadata project, and an update on the MDL Primary Source Sets project.
The new year is well on its way, and Phase 14 of Minnesota Reflections is more than halfway over. Have a project that you think would be great for Reflections? There is still time to apply! We are accepting projects on a wide variety of topics related to Minnesota and its cultural heritage in a broad range of media, so you are likely to have something that would be a good fit. We look forward to hearing from you!
Historical content from Minnesota's cultural heritage organizations, all in one place