Meet our spring 2025 cohort!

We are excited to announce our next Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative cohort starting in January 2025. This initiative brings together Wisconsin content partners and information school graduate students to create new digital collections. Content partners will choose collections to digitize, and student staff will handle the digitization and metadata work as part of a paid practicum or independent study experience. Most digitized collections will be added to Recollection Wisconsin throughout the year.

Spring 2025 participants:

  • Elizabeth Feucht (UW-Milwaukee SOIS) at the Menomonee Falls Public Library with Ellen Rohrs. Project: Historic photos of Menomonee Falls businesses, people, and civic organizations including early records of area women’s club and the Friends of Lime Kiln Park.
  • Jaime Jorns (UCSD iSchool) at Washington Island Museums and the Egg Harbor Public Library with Nina Herbst. Project: Digitizing and photographing materials from the Jacobsens Museum established in 1931 by Jens Jacobsen (1867-1952), an Island resident born in Denmark. The collection includes models of both contemporary and historical boats and scrollwork design pieces.
  • Russell Knapp (UW-Madison iSchool) at the Middleton Area Historical Society with Ruth Bachmeier. Project: Historic materials and photos that document the history of tourism and hospitality in the Middleton area including restaurants.
  • Rebecca Silber (UW-Milwaukee SOIS) at the Milwaukee Art Museum with Heather Winter. Project: Digitizing materials from the Brooks Stevens Archive.

Student activities include scanning, metadata creation, project management, documentation, and digital file organization. This hands-on opportunity invites future information professionals to apply theory in practice. All participants will receive training and ongoing support from Recollection Wisconsin staff including resources in the Digital Readiness Toolkit.

Our initiative aligns with a key Recollection Wisconsin strategic goal for 2023-2025: collaborating with organizations in non-participating Wisconsin counties and underrepresented community groups to expand participation in Recollection Wisconsin resulting in new stories and historical records that document our state’s rich history.

Welcome spring cohort participants. We’re excited to work with you to digitize, share, and preserve Wisconsin local history resources! Much gratitude to our partners at the UW-Milwaukee SOIS and UW-Madison iSchool and the state of Wisconsin for financial support enabling this opportunity in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Summer 2025.

For further details, visit Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative or contact Vicki Tobias at vicki@wils.org.