Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has been launched! The DPLA was launched on April 18, 2013 and currently offers about three million digital images, books, maps, archival collections available for retrieval by keyword searching. Organizations including the National Archives, the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian are partners in this endeavor along with our own Minnesota Reflections Digital Library.

Looking for an interview with Malcolm X? Dennis Banks? Lena Horne? Or an interview with Pete Seeger? Large and small repositories from around the country have made their digitized resources accessible by the click of a mouse. Check out this new portal into America’s rich history.

Interested in world politics since 1989 and on into the 21st Century? Pick-up or download books by Samuel Huntington's "Clash of civilizations and the remaking of the world order" or Gideon Rachman's "Zero-sum future: American power in an age of anxiety" or Noam Chomsky's "How the world works." These are some of the leading commentators on the jockeying and jostling between world powers who identify challenges and provide insight into the world's political future. Interested in more? Try using the subject heading: World politics -- 1989-

The digitized newspaper card index is keyword searchable. The index facilitates locating local articles online from the Minnesota Daily (1900-1922, 1963-1977), Minneapolis Tribune (1940-1945, 1950-1954) and the Minneapolis Star (1964-1970). The results are an image of the original card with the subject heading, citation to the title of the article(s), date and page. Search the online index by keyword or by the assigned subject heading. Be sure and review the information about subject headings. The index was compiled by the University of Minnesota Wilson Library staff.

The microfilmed newspapers of the Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune newspapers, for the dates indexed, are available at Minneapolis Central Library, 3rd floor. (The Minnesota Daily is available online by date as a PDF.)

According to an article published in August, 1862, Minnesota had 43,900,000 acres of land open to free settlement. It consisted of rolling prairie, interspersed with frequent groves, oak openings and belts of hardwood timber watered by numberless lakes and streams and covered with a warm dark soil of great fertility. Minnesota's population went from 172,000 in 1860 to 439,406 in 1870. Check out images of Minnesota during the 1860s at Minnesota Reflections (search under Frontier and Pioneer Life) and the Library of Congress's Primary Documents in American History: Homestead Act.

Throughout this year, the Minnesota Historical Society is introducing a wide range of initiatives to encourage discussion and reflection about the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Check out this website for historical background, a timeline of events, 2012 public programs, books, links to photos, documents & artifacts relating to the war, and resources for researching family history.

This phenomenal online dictionary was years in the making and a product of collaboration between the University of Minnesota Department of American Indian Studies and the Minnesota Historical Society. The website draws on the resources and expertise of each organization. The project is deeply indebted to Ojibwe elders who were recorded for the talking dictionary. Their time and talents are a critical component of the dictionary.

Recent technologies made possible the illustrated, talking dictionary with photographs and drawings of Ojibwe material culture and activities. The dictionary searches related words and includes expanded language information. The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment monies were instrumental in bringing this site up on the web.