SELCO proudly offers digitized local newspapers through the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub from at least one community in each of the 11 southeastern counties. This valuable resource is made possible through a collaborative partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and paid for by a Library Legacy grant from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Using the 1900 census data, SELCO’s digitization efforts tackled counties in the order of the largest population centers at the time. The chart below illustrates production during the first five years of this project. Nearly a quarter of a million pages were digitized using rigorous national standards. During FY2020, additional historical newspapers will be digitized.

County	1900 Census Population	Pages Digitized
Winona	35,686	15,450
Goodhue	31,137	32,638
Fillmore	28,238	18,582
Rice	26,080	15,411
Olmsted	23,119	46,202
Mower *	22,335	6,300
Freeborn	21,838	25,000
Wabasha	18,924	18,184
Steele	16,524	35,461
Houston	15,400	12,900
Dodge	13,340	20,550

* A portion of Mower County pages were digitized through a grant project for the National Digital Newspaper Program with the Library of Congress for Chronicling America.