Minnesota Digital Library

The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) is a statewide, multi-institutional initiative to make the rich historical resources of the state’s public and academic libraries, archives, museums and historical societies available to the public via the web and to preserve the resources for future generations.

The MDL complements the public access to the book catalogs and indexes to the collections of these institutions currently provided by the MnLINK (Minnesota Library Information Network) Library Gateway and the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM).

The Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund-supported Minnesota Digital Library project is enabling the Minnesota Historical Society to work with key partners, including the University of Minnesota and Minitex, to create a repository for the permanent preservation of important historical materials converted to digital form.

The partner organizations are working with a consortium of universities involved in digital preservation to advance the technical, administrative and governance issues of this cooperative venture. This project is also enabling the Society and its partners to expand support for Minnesota Reflections, a web site developed and maintained by the MDL.

Since the funds have been allocated, the number of images and documents that are available on the site has increased by more than 75 percent to 58,000 from 33,000. These files, which can be accessed by the public at no cost, were contributed by more than 115 organizations across the state.