The MnDOT Digital Library, launched last year, is a searchable repository of MnDOT publications that would typically be found in the library collection. While many documents were already in digital form, some older ones were digitized to make them more widely accessible. All are free for local transportation agencies as well as the public.
The digital library includes all kinds of things: research reports, annual reports, State Aid publications, photographs, state highway maps, newsletters, and historical documents. Users can search by keyword, creator, collection date, or format. Each item has a persistent link, which means that it won’t break, making access to this information reliable into the future.
MnDOT Library staff developed the digital library to address the reality that more and more publications are published digitally. Once COVID-19 hit, the demand to receive information digitally grew exponentially.
“The digital library solves the problem of how to provide access to the library’s digital items and it creates an online source of MnDOT print publications that we’ve digitized,” says Marilee Tuite, MnLTAP/MnDOT librarian and project manager for the digital library development.
Scanning thousands of pages of items—some dating back as far as 1917—was a two-year team effort between MnDOT Library staff and MnDOT Printing and Electronic Media Services. To date, there are more than 3,500 items in the digital library, with plans to make thousands more available.
One example: the Minnesota Standard Specifications for Highway Construction from 1938. The MnDOT Library got a request for it last year. “The request was easy to fulfill because a digitized version of the manual was readily available,” Tuite says.
(Adapted from the MnDOT Crossroads blog, Apr. 4, 2023.)
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