Update on the Minitex Wikimedia Project

Over the past year, Minitex staff continued to explore the feasibility and impact of adding digital content to Wikimedia Commons, moving from a pilot project in 2023 to participating in the DPLA Wikimedia project in 2024/2025. The overall goal of our most recent project remained the same—to increase discovery of Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) digital collections. To keep the project manageable, we recruited 12 organizations that had eligible content in the Minnesota Digital Library. They included:

• Bethel University
• Blue Earth County Historical Society
• Carleton College
• Hennepin County Library
• Minitex
• Minnesota State University, Mankato
• Nicollet County Historical Society
• Norwegian American Historical Society
• Saint Paul Public Library
• St. Cloud State University
• Stillwater Public Library
• Weavers Guild of Minnesota 

After DPLA uploaded their images to Wikimedia Commons, participants learned how to edit and add images to Wikipedia articles, asked questions, and shared tips. They enhanced Wikipedia articles by adding historic images to complement the history sections on Wikipedia pages, and in some cases were able to add images to Wikipedia articles that did not have an image. 

For example, Hennepin County Library enriched the Wikipedia page for Charlie's Cafe Exceptionale, which was open in downtown Minneapolis from 1933 to 1982. It remains the only image attached to the Wikipedia article, and was derived from a postcard that Hennepin County Library added to Wikimedia Commons.

If you browse to the "History" section on the Wikipedia page for St. Peter, Minnesota, you will see an illustration depicting a bird's eye view of the town of St. Peter as it looked in 1870. This image was added by Nicollet County Historical Society.

Summary

Here is a snapshot of the numbers from when images were first uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in November 2024 to when the project wrapped up in February 2025. 

• 352,068 files contributed to Wikimedia Commons
• 81 images added by project participants to 62 Wikipedia pages
  • An additional 74 images were added to Wikipedia articles by other Wikipedia editors unaffiliated with our cohort
• 961,488 page views of Wikipedia articles with images from the project

As of September 2025, the images added from the project have received over 4 million views! To view the up-to-date information, visit the following links. 

• All Media contributed by the Minnesota Digital Library to Wikimedia Commons
• Page views of all MDL content in Wikimedia Commons

The Wikimedia project with DPLA proved to be a valuable learning opportunity for both Minitex staff as well as our partner contributors from the Minnesota Digital Library. During the project, we learned more about the Wikimedia platforms (Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia) and the steps needed to transform images from MDL into valuable additions to Wikipedia articles. This work not only enhanced Wikipedia articles, it also increased web discoverability of the unique digital content from contributor digital collections.

We plan to continue the project; look for another open call to participate soon! For any questions in the meantime, contact Sara Ring, project lead.

Image credit: Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Park Commissioners of the City of St. Paul for the Year Ending March 1, A. D. 1895, Saint Paul Public Library. This image is also found in the "Park" section on the Wikipedia page for Lake Phalen.