We’re thrilled to announce a new initiative supporting Wisconsin local history organizations in their digitization work! The aptly-named Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative is a collaborative endeavor which brings together Wisconsin organizations with local history collections (public libraries, museums, archives, and local history or community organizations) and Wisconsin information school graduate students to digitize and publicly share new collections via Recollection Wisconsin. We invite new content partners with a desire to digitize and share their unique local history collect ..read more

Since 2016, Recollection Wisconsin has proudly served as a hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), connecting users with a wealth of digital cultural heritage items. This collaboration allowed materials from Recollection Wisconsin to be seamlessly integrated into the national DPLA platform, expanding the accessibility of Wisconsin-based content to researchers far and wide. The DPLA team played a crucial role in designing the national infrastructure, conducting quarterly ingests, and fostering a professional community of practice for hub representatives. However, change is on the ..read more

Counting Pennies, South Wood County Historical Museum. Recollection Wisconsin has made the significant decision to eliminate all onboarding fees, hosting fees, and harvesting fees for all incoming and current content partners. This move is a leap toward increased accessibility and showcases our commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive digital collections platform. The decision is also aligned with Recollection Wisconsin’s work in amplifying collections that reflect the full spectrum of Wisconsin’s cultural heritage. Recollection Wisconsin has always kept fees minimal to encourage ..read more

Observatory Hill overlook, ca. 1978. University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives. This last year was a year of anticipation, hard work, and celebration for Recollection Wisconsin. We wrapped up the last leg of a strenuous, multi-year legislative advocacy process for state funding, briefly celebrated that funding success, and then buckled down for the work ahead. We restarted the gears of the Recollection Wisconsin machinery and, as stewards of Wisconsin’s digital history with the entrusted taxpayer funds, began to plan for continued growth and improvement. As you turn the pages of 2023’s Year in ..read more

Photography students on a snowmobile, 1972. Milwaukee Area Technical College. The Recollection Wisconsin Steering Committee is seeking nominations to fill two vacant seats. The Committee helps shape the priorities and future directions of the Recollection Wisconsin statewide digital consortium. The Committee is made up of librarians, archivists, curators, educators, and other digital practitioners representing a broad range of cultural heritage and memory-keeping organizations throughout Wisconsin. It is an excellent opportunity to help guide the bright future of Recollection Wisconsin and to ..read more

Examining a film strip, ca. 1950-ca. 1960. UW-Madison Archives. Recollection Wisconsin, in partnership with the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, can loan a Film Inspection Kit for examining 8mm or 16mm film and a Wolverine Film Scanner for reformatting 8mm and Super8 film. Funding for the kits was provided by a grant to the  Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Kits are available to lend to any organization within the state of Wisconsin that is either 1) an affiliate of the Wisconsin Historical Society ..read more

Bucky Badger with balloons, ca. 1989. University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives. Thanks to the hard work of our Governing Board, Steering Committee, and other Content Partners, Recollection Wisconsin has been awarded a dedicated funding line in the Department of Public Instruction’s 2023-2025 Wisconsin state budget. We are so grateful to everyone who took the time to participate in the advocacy process, from writing letters and meeting with members of the Joint Finance Committee to sharing stories of the impact Recollection Wisconsin has had on organizations, researchers, and communities. We ar ..read more

Emily Pfotenhauer Former Recollection Wisconsin Program Manager Emily Pfotenhauer has been selected to receive the 2023 Society of American Archivists Spotlight Award. This award, given only once a year, recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the archives profession and of archival collections, and whose work would not typically receive public recognition. Emily’s qualifications are significant and you can read the full nomination letter to learn about the contributions she made in her 14-year tenure with WiLS, Wisconsin Heritage Online, and Recollection Wisconsin ..read more

The Recollection Wisconsin Steering Committee offers the following recommendation on the use of prison labor for digitization. Background Libraries and cultural organizations are sometimes contacted by state corrections departments such as Oklahoma Correctional Industries (OCI) offering digitization services, particularly for high school yearbooks. These services, typically free or nearly so, may appeal to organizations that do not have staff with digitization experience or access to scanning equipment. While we want all Wisconsin organizations to have the opportunity to digitize their histori ..read more

Guest post by Abbigail Swanton, Division for Libraries and Technology, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Reposted from Wisconsin Libraries for Everyone. Hmong-language report published by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, 2020. Wisconsin Digital Archives. The National Archives is celebrating October as American Archives Month to highlight how history is made accessible to you. Wisconsin is celebrating, too! For nearly 120 years, Wisconsin libraries have been providing access to Wisconsin state documents distributed by the Wisconsin Document Depository Program ..read more