MN historical societies may switch to digital preservation

CARVER COUNTY, MN – At a time when newspapers are struggling with their role in a new digital information age, there’s a similar debate at the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), the Chaska Herald reported.

Wendy Petersen-Biorn, Carver County Historical Society executive director, told the Chaska Heralad that she couldn’t remember the last time someone wasn’t using the museum library’s microfilm reader.

Since territorial days, the society has been collecting and preserving area newspapers. And, for the past 60 years, this preservation has taken the form of plastic microfilm – lots of microfilm.

In fact, MHS purchased or created 800 spools of microfilm a year, covering about 400 Minnesota newspapers. Each roll includes hundreds or thousands of micro images of newspaper pages. Using a special machine, researchers can read them.

MHS, headquartered in St. Paul, operated a microfilm lab with a $200,000 budget. Five workers (four full-time equivalent workers) copied almost every page of almost every small Minnesota newspaper, until June 30, 2009.

That’s when the Minnesota Historical Society cut its budget and eliminated its microfilm lab, according to the Chaska Herald.

Newspapers, as required by law, continue to send copies to the state historical society. Meanwhile, MHS is considering a switch to digital newspaper preservation and hopes to have a plan in place by July 2010, the beginning of its next fiscal year.

However, how digital preservation takes place is still in discussion, according to the Chaska Herald.

To read the full article, go to http://www.chaskaherald.com/news/history/how-can-story-be-saved-minnesota-historical-society-ponders-newspaper-preservation-112