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Home > Partner with Us > Content Partner Resources > Recollection Wisconsin Content Partner Update Archive
Recent Blog Posts
- July 28, 2026
Reading the Tribune, ca. 1948-1952. South Wood County Historical Museum. Recollection Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC), together with several statewide partners, are pleased to share a new white paper, Facilitating a Wisconsin Newspaper Portal. This white paper lays out the current landscape of digitized historical newspapers in Wisconsin and offers a tiered plan toward a long-term goal: a centralized, statewide repository and discovery tool for digitized local historical newspapers. The white paper grew out of a September 2025 Newspaper Think Tank held at UW-Milwaukee, where representatives from public library systems, historical societies, academic libraries, and the Wisconsin Historical Society gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities around newspaper digitization and access. That conversation, along with years of partner input gathered by Recollection Wisconsin and the WPLC Historical and Local Digital Collections Committee, formed the foundation for the paper. The white paper grew out of a September 2025 Newspaper Think Tank held at UW-Milwaukee, where representatives from public library systems, historical societies, academic libraries, and the Wisconsin Historical Society gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities around newspaper digitization and access. That conversation, along with years of partner input gathered by Recollection Wisconsin and the WPLC Historical and Local Digital Collections Committee, formed the foundation for the paper. The paper confirms with data what many in Wisconsin’s cultural heritage community already suspected: hundreds of thousands of newspaper pages in the state have already been digitized but live on a fragmented set of various platforms, each with different access policies and metadata practices. The paper offers a tiered approach to next steps: starting with an information-gathering phase, moving to a resource creation process to assist the cultural heritage community in digitizing and providing access to their own digitized newspaper collections, and eventually a full program phase to design and launch a portal. While the Wisconsin Historical Society is a natural eventual host for such a centralized portal, their current priorities make this a longer-term goal. We’re grateful to everyone who contributed time, expertise, and input to this project. We hope to use the white paper for future resource requests to explain both the gaps in Wisconsin’s newspaper infrastructure and the deep bench of expertise, interest, and determination to move toward a unified solution.
- May 11, 2026
Canning, ca. 1948-1952.South Wood County Historical Museum. PreserveWI, Wisconsin’s statewide digital preservation program, is moving into its next chapter. Digital preservation – the long-term, monitored storage of digital cultural heritage materials – is an essential but often underfunded part of any digitization program, and PreserveWI exists to make it achievable through shared statewide infrastructure. This collaborative initiative between Recollection Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) is transitioning Wisconsin’s preservation infrastructure away from mirrored servers hosted at South Central Library System (SCLS) and LEANWI and into APTrust, a trusted consortium-based digital preservation service hosted at the University of Virginia and in continuous operation since 2012. This transition represents a long-term investment in a sustainable, shared digital preservation ecosystem for Wisconsin’s digital cultural heritage. This next phase builds directly on years of foundational LSTA-funded work by the WPLC digital preservation workgroup, which included piloting workflows, testing infrastructure, and onboarding participating library systems. That knowledge and experience will carry forward into PreserveWI’s work with APTrust. In this next phase, Recollection Wisconsin serves as the central administrator, managing day-to-day operations and contributor support, while WPLC provides governance and strategic oversight. APTrust membership officially begins July 1, 2026. Training for the first cohort of participating library systems is already underway, with the remaining systems coming on through the fall, and full operational launch is on track for the end of 2026. Not at a participating library system, or not a library at all? Future phases of the program will open participation to additional libraries and cultural heritage organizations through Recollection Wisconsin’s umbrella membership, so there will be a place for your institution yet. If you’re digitizing materials and wondering where they’ll live for the long haul, stay tuned!
- October 10, 2024
Recollection Wisconsin invites you to join a FREE four-month learning group to learn the fundamentals of digital project planning, creating, and maintaining digital collections. In collaboration with WebJunction, participants will complete eight modules on digital collections stewardship and come together virtually every other week for four months to discuss concepts and projects. FREE!This program is generously funded by a grant to WebJunction from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Course structureCourse material is self-paced and available online. Participants will meet virtually twice a month for four months for guided discussions on the modules. Who is eligible?Volunteers and employees of Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, or cultural organizations. You do not need any prior digitization experience to participate! Timeline January 2025: Introduction & Community-Centered Approach to Digital Collections February 2025: Preparing & Gathering March 2025: Digitizing & Enhancing April 2025: Saving & Sharing Apply by November 15 to participate! Email info@recollectionwisconsin.org with any questions. We look forward to learning with you!
