Digitization of Minnesota's Newspapers

Working with the Minnesota Newspaper Association, local historical societies and newspaper publishers, the Minnesota Historical Society launched an innovative project to expand the number of contemporary newspapers available in digital form. In the pilot phase of the project, the Society developed a methodology for digitizing, preserving and indexing newspaper content. Those processes will be tested with six newspapers and optimized in 2011. With ACHF funding, the Society was also able to purchase necessary hardware and software to store the newspaper files and to make the content available to researchers through the Society's reference library, as well as through a web site that will be available to the public.