We are excited to announce our next Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative cohort starting in January 2026. This initiative brings together Wisconsin content partners and information school graduate students to create new digital collections. Content partners will select collections to digitize, and student staff will handle digitization and metadata work as part of a paid practicum or independent study. These digitized collections will be added to Recollection Wisconsin in the coming months.
Spring 2026 participants
- Bri Quintero Bungert (UW-Madison iSchool) at Farnsworth Public Library in Oconto, Wisconsin, working with library director Amy Peterson. Project: Digitizing community history materials including township histories, pamphlets, local history books and military history.
- Erik Daniels (UW-Madison iSchool) at Madison Area Technical College Library in Madison, Wisconsin, working with health programs and electronic collections management librarian Renee Anhalt. Project: Digitizing materials that document MATC’s history including yearbooks, course catalogs, college organizations, and photos.
- Magnolia Sandell (UW-Madison iSchool) at Whitewater Public Library in Whitewater, Wisconsin, working with assistant library director Sarah French. Project: Digitizing local history materials including postcards, business advertisements, city directories and materials housed in the Kregge Room.
Throughout the spring semester, student interns will be scanning materials, creating metadata and project documentation, and uploading digitized collections to CONTENTdm. 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’s 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 2026.
For further details, visit Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative or contact Vicki Tobias at vicki@wils.org.
