MDL/DPLA Public Library Partnerships Project grant completed

For the last two years the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) has been working with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) on the Public Library Partnerships Project (PLPP), a grant awarded to the DPLA by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. MDL was one of five Service Hubs chosen to work with DPLA to provide digital skills training for public librarians and connect them sustainably with state and regional resources for digitizing, describing, and exhibiting their cultural heritage content.

The grant wrapped up in September and we are proud of all that we accomplished.

• We provided Digital Skills Training to 31 Minnesota library and cultural heritage staffers from 22 different institutions, and contributed to DPLA’s self-guided digital projects curriculum.
• The PLPP attracted eight institutions new to MDL and encouraged four returning contributors to submit new projects.
• We digitized and created metadata for 3,632 items, made up of 15,564 pages or images.
• Because of the PLPP we added the first 3-dimensional objects to MDL, captured in still images and, for many, “spinning video.”Check out the glass sculptures in East Central Regional Library’s Minnesota Reflections collection and the pharmacy-related containers in the collection of the East Polk Heritage Center and the University of Minnesota's Wangensteen Library of Medical History.
• We created two online exhibitions using material digitized through the PLPP, from Minnesota Reflections and from other DPLA sources:“Quack Cures and Self-Remedies: Patent Medicine, 1860-1920” which includes a section titled “Made in Minnesota: Patent Medicine on the Prairie,” and “Urban Parks in the United States.”
• We created and strengthened relationships with public libraries and other organizations throughout the state, and supported collaborative projects.

The grant was a wonderful opportunity to experiment and explore new approaches for MDL activities. It helped us educate and inform potential contributors and advocates, supported the creation of collaborative partnerships between public libraries and entities with which we might not otherwise have connected, and resulted in the addition of lots of great material to Minnesota Reflections and to the DPLA.

Many thanks to all the institutions that submitted projects:

• Duluth Public Library
• East Central Regional Library
• East Polk Heritage Center
• Fosston Public Library
• Grand Marais Public Library
• Great River Regional Library
• Hennepin County Library
• Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board
• Stillwater Public Library
• Wangensteen Library of Medical History
• Washington County Parks Division
• Winona County Historical Society

We will be highlighting specific contributors and projects in future Mailings. To see online exhibitions created by other partners, to access the self-guided digital training curriculum or to read more about the PLPP, visit http://dp.la/info/about/projects/public-library-partnerships

Minneapolis Public Library Hospital Service image courtesy of Hennepin County Library's PLPP project.