Saint Paul Public Library has received two new sources of funding to support the digitization of select materials held in the library’s Saint Paul Collection. The library received a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage grant in the amount of $85,035 through the Minnesota Historical Society for the “Digitizing Saint Paul City Directories” project. The library also received $100,000 from the City of Saint Paul’s Cultural STAR Program to support digitization.
Securing support for digitization technology was one of the centerpieces of the 2016 advocacy platform of The Friends. While the advocates were successful in achieving ongoing funding to maintain the increased evening hours which were won last year, the City was unable to honor the committee’s request for the funds for equipment, training, hosting and initial staffing required to kick off the new initiative.
The “Digitizing Saint Paul City Directories” project, funded by the Minnesota Historical Society grant, will preserve and improve access to of one of the library’s most frequently-used and fragile holdings in the Saint Paul Collection. City directories listing Saint Paul residents and businesses dating back to 1856 are held at the George Latimer Central Library. Many of the volumes are in danger of degrading beyond the point of use.
The library will contract with a firm to digitize the city directories and will make them available to customers in late 2016 in the form of new, facsimile volumes and as digital files. The library will continue to hold the original directories in its collections. Volumes after 1923 that are still under copyright restrictions will be available for use in digital and print formats only at the George Latimer Central Library.
With new funds from the City’s Cultural STAR Program, the library is developing plans to digitize additional materials held in the Saint Paul Collection. This collection includes historical documents, images, scrapbooks and other materials related to the city of Saint Paul.