Meet our fall cohort!
We are excited to announce the first Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative cohort starting in September 2024. 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.
Fall 2024 participants:
- Kierstin Wagner (UW-Milwaukee SOIS) at the Ho-Chunk Language Division with Samson Falcon and Adrienne Thunder. Project: Digitizing Ho-Chunk language learning materials using the Mukurtu content management system.
- Julia Lalor (UW-Madison iSchool) at the Edgerton Public Library with Beth Krebs-Smith. Project: Digitizing historic local newspapers including the Edgerton Reporter and the Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter.
- Jacqueline Steel (UW-Madison iSchool) at the Eagle River Historical Society in collaboration with the Nicolet Federated Library System with Vito Bortolotti and Tracy Vreeke. Project: Digitizing materials documenting tourism and recreation in the Eagle River area including historic resorts and supper clubs.
Student activities include scanning, metadata creation, project management, documentation, and digital file organization. This hands-on opportunity allows future information professionals to apply theory in practice. Participants will receive training and ongoing support from Recollection Wisconsin staff through resources in the Digital Readiness Toolkit.
This program aligns with 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 which means more stories and historical records documenting our state’s rich history will be available.
We extend gratitude to our partners at UW-Milwaukee SOIS and UW-Madison iSchool. Special thanks to the state of Wisconsin for the support enabling this opportunity in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Summer 2025. We will seek your support in advocating for continued funding in 2025 and beyond if you share our excitement for this program.
For further details, visit Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative or contact Vicki Tobias at vicki@wils.org.
