MPR Archives: Preserving Minnesota's History

Over our 50+ year history MPR has documented the events and stories that have impacted Minnesota at a national, regional and local level, being the only state-wide broadcaster to do so. Our trove of content is available to bring nuance and context to the discussions of the day, and to offer pathways to partnership with audiences that we are trying to reach with a message of inclusion and trust. The work done to make the Archive's analog content accessible digitally not only enables the Archive to connect with a wide range of audiences, it is also a huge step towards ensuring that the content is preserved and accessible for new audiences in future generations.

In FY23, the MPR Archive will focus on two critical aspects of archive work: 1) preservation of at-risk materials and 2) enrichment of our public-facing portal.

- Preservation of at-risk materials: This will entail cataloging, digitizing, and preserving thousands of hours of fragile media (CD-R, DAT and tape) and ingesting that to the MPR Archive, and then publishing to the archive web portal and MPR's website. The content chosen for this project represents the art, history and cultural heritage of Minnesota as captured by MPR in audio recordings and images through a wide range of programming.

- Enrichment of our public-facing portal: The Archive makes unique analog materials available in digital formats, published on the MPR Archive website. Anyone with internet access can find this content for their own personal enjoyment, or to use for journalistic, academic or research endeavors. This material is also rebroadcast by our own FM stations or used for on-demand content when events of the day recall historic events.

We are shifting the role of the Archive to be much more audience-facing and focus on serving more Minnesotans, creating a social and web strategy that will be built around publishing content to our website and curating and contextualizing the content we have now to be more accessible and engaging for Minnesotans, with a focus on sharing the stories that highlight the voices that are often absent from the media narrative.

Additionally, we have pledged to create more transcriptions of our historic content, making that audio accessible to a wider audience that may be unable to enjoy it in its existing form. With transcriptions, folks with hearing loss can enjoy it, as well as people for whom English is not their first language.

Please note that in FY22 Archives preservation activities are funded by our FY21 Legacy allocation.