MDL in Louisville!

The Annual Conference of AASLH was in Louisville, KY this year, September 16-19, and MDL was there. Carla Urban and I both attended and went to sessions on community engagement, partnering, project-based learning, controversial objects, copyright, and interpretation and how it changes over time, bringing back fresh insights to inform our work here. I found the changing interpretive landscape as expressed in recent installations and programs in various museums and cultural heritage organizations across the country to be particularly inspiring, as the resources we collect, make available and preserve help to make that interpretation possible. Seeing these materials used to further the understanding of history in new ways reinforces the value for me of what we do in the Minnesota Digital Library.

Another highlight of the AASLH conference was the keynote speaker, Sam Wineburg, professor of education and history at Stanford University, who focused his talk on the issue of information literacy, something of interest to librarians and historians alike. He was particularly concerned with how information is obtained and known to be valid in our digital world, what makes a reliable source and how you can tell it is reliable. Many other Minnesotans joined us at the conference, including many of our Minnesota Reflections contributors, and it was great to have a chance to connect, catch up, and talk about new projects.