Digitization of Collections

Increasing the public's online access to the Minnesota Historical Society's permanent collection remains a top priority of the Collections Department. ACHF collections assistants continued to increase public access to the MNHS collection through the digitization of over 1,300 additional records published to our online database in FY14. In FY15, over 1,500 additional records were digitized and published to the database. These items focused primarily on American Indian material culture, World War I and recent acquisitions. Collections assistants also highlighted and promoted MNHS collections by producing online content and assisting with exhibits, events, tours and inquiries related to the collections. For example, in FY14 Collections assistants posted over 500 blog posts and worked on four online podcasts and slideshows. In FY15, staff posted over 300 blog posts. During FYs14 and 15, the digital collections assistant is focusing on streamlining tasks central to the work of preserving MNHS' 70 terabytes of digital collections, as well as implementing new techniques and technologies for appraising, collecting and managing historical digital content.