In this last extraordinary year, we’ve witnessed resilience and creativity from our partners and colleagues as they responded to both the global pandemic and powerful social justice movements. They documented the personal experiences of community members in challenging times, supported teachers and students as schools closed and learning transitioned to virtual environments, and turned a critical eye to their own collections to examine their participation in excluding or marginalizing members of their communities. And they tackled this work while navigating closed offices, limited staffing, and reduced budgets.
Throughout this difficult year, the Recollection Wisconsin team was honored to support and learn from these organizations. We are excited to share our work from the last year with you in our 2020 Year in Review.
Below are a few highlights, or you can read the full Recollection Wisconsin 2020 Year in Review here.
In 2020, Recollection Wisconsin:
- Harvested 28,000 new records, welcomed 5 new Content Partners, and added 14 new collections from existing Content Partners
- Saw total website page views more than double over 2019 and saw views of individual items increase 134%
- Conducted a gap analysis of the collection as a first step to fostering greater diversity and inclusion, helping more Wisconsin residents can see their stories represented
- Launched Listening to War, a digital collection of oral history interviews with nearly 500 Wisconsin veterans and civilians, contributed by 22 libraries, archives, museums, and veterans’ organizations across the state
- Established an Education Advisory Committee of representatives from the K12 education community to guide efforts to connect educators with Content Partners’ materials
- Launched a Digital Readiness Community of Practice to support local history organizations so they can provide online public access to their archives and historical records
- Published Curating Community Digital Collections: A Starter Package of curriculum and program materials for others interested in establishing a cohort-based digital preservation training program
