Ken Behringer retired from the Metropolitan Library Services Agency (MELSA), a regional public library system that serves the libraries in the seven-county Twin City metro area, in 2019. His career included becoming the first Executive Director of MNLINK, serving as the Director of the Dakota County Library and the Great River Regional Libraries, and library positions in Wyoming and the North Dakota State Library. In this interview, he describes the development of library services in Minnesota that he observed from various points in his career and as a lifelong library user. Behringer often found his role to be in working with local county decisionmakers as well as the state legislature to secure funding for libraries. That led to impacts on budgeting for improved library services, technological advances, and the development of regional and state-wide library systems that have strengthened the library community in the state. He also discusses the colleagues who have been influential throughout his career including Bill Asp, Bill DeJohn, Charlene Mason, Roseanne Byrne, and Mike Turbes. This interview also includes an audio recording, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
A gift to the Minitex staff in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the funding of Minitex in 1971. The custom created Minitex crowler was made at Bent Paddle Brewing in Duluth, Minnesota.
John T. Butler has served as the Associate University Librarian for Data and Technology at the University of Minnesota since 2008. Prior to that role, he was the inaugural Director of the University of Minnesota's Digital Library Development Lab, and also led the Science and Engineering Library at the University of Minnesota. In the interview, Butler discusses one of his earliest experiences working in libraries as a student for Minitex and other experiences leading up to his current role at the University of Minnesota libraries. Other topics discussed include: the development of the Minnesota Digital Library and the Minnesota Legacy Amendment funding; early mentors and influential colleagues Hank Rowan (Professor of Art, University of Minnesota), Susan Ardi (Engineering Librarian, University of Texas at Austin), Bill DeJohn, and Wendy Lougee; and his engagement with the Digital Public Library of America and HathiTrust. This interview also includes an audio recording, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Ruth Dukelow retired as Director of CLIC (Cooperating Libraries in Consortium) in June 2019. Ruth Dukelow discusses her career as a librarian and director at libraries and consortia in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, North Carolina, Michigan, and Minnesota, culminating in her role as executive director of the CLIC Library System in the Twin Cities. Dukelow also mentions working with fellow OCLC network librarians from Minitex when she was at the Michigan Library Consortium such as Kathy Drozd, Becky Ringwelski, Mary Parker, and Carla Dewey Urban and traveling to OCLC headquarters for network meeting in the 1990s, and a memorable migration of the CLIC shared catalog to a next-generation library management system. This interview includes an audio recording, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Keith Ewing, Coordinator of Library Systems & Digital Services at St. Cloud State University, retired in July 2017. Graduating with an MLS in 1979 from University of Texas at Austin, Ewing went on to work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business Administration, and in system and digital services roles at St. Cloud State University. In his interview, Keith disccusses internet and digital library technology in libraries, the inception of the Minnesota Digital Library, work on the first Minitex MEIR task force, the building of a new library at St. Cloud State University, mentors, and dinner with Ray Bradbury. This interview includes an audio recording and full transcript.
Beth Chekola scanning an article for interlibrary loan that goes out via email to a participating library in Elmer Andersen Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Valerie Horton retired from her position as the director of Minitex in 2019. In this interview, she discusses her professional career beginning as a systems librarian at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She also worked as a systems librarian at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago assisting with early library automation. Her career highlights included serving as library director at Colorado Mesa University, Colorado Library Consortium, and Minitex (2014-2019). Horton discusses some initiatives from her time at Minitex, including the Minnesota Digital Library, Ebooks Minnesota, SimplyE, and the Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project.
Wendy Pradt Lougee was the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Minnesota from 2002-2020. Prior to that role, over a period of 20 years, she held several positions at the University of Michigan, including Director of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library and Associate Director of the University Library for Digital Library Services. In this interview, Lougee traces her career path in Academic Libraries up to her latest role as University Librarian at the University of Minnesota. While at the University of Michigan Lougee put together the team that birthed JSTOR in the mid-1990s, a digital platform for accessing academic journals, which led to launching several other new digital projects and publishing projects. Lougee discusses the national organizations and boards she served on over the course of her career such as the Research Libraries Group, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Digital Library Federation, Council on Library and Information Resources, the Association of Research Libraries, HathiTrust, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Other topics discussed include: working with Minitex; colleagues that made an impact on Lougee's work such as Dick Dougherty, Dan Atkins, Paul Courant, and Governor Elmer Andersen; the awarding of the National Medal for Libraries and Museums to the University of Minnesota Libraries; and a few future library environment forecasts. This interview also includes an audio recording, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
This issue includes the following articles: Bibliographic Instruction (proceedings from a workshop); COM Catalogs and Conversion Projects (from Ramsey County Public Library and Minneapolis Public Library); People; Minitex Workshop Speaker Participation Policy; Minitex/OCLC Mailings; Circulation Systems: Suggested Reading; A Circulation System With OCLC; OCLC Use in Minitex: Some Thoughts and Statistics; Minitex Courier; Regional Workshops for Catalogers: AACR2; New MULS Manual.
This issue includes the following articles: Minitex-South Dakota Resource Sharing; Minnesota Libraries 1977 Report (for the ALA Yearbook, 1978 edition); Upcoming User Group Meetings; Library Directories; OCLC Governance; Bush II OCLC Installations; OCLC Directory Update; OCLC Training; Publications; TWX Communication; Verifying Citations from On-Line Searches; New Appointments--New Participants; Visitors to Minitex; Newsletter Mailing List; and CAB Abstracts On-Line Workshop.
This issue includes the following articles: Minnesota Union List of Serials; New Minitex Manual; Five-Year Review of Copyight Law; Location Search Service-Codes Supplied; Publications to Notes; Online Workshops; Coming and Going; Resource Sharing Thoughts; TWX Sound Shield for Sale; Performance Evaluation in Academic Libraries; Celtic Library at College of St. Thomas; Grant Money for Two-Year Colleges; MLA Pre-Conferences Planned; Visitors; Networking Reading.
This issue includes includes an update on new library holdings symbols in OCLC and the final grant supported library to have their OCLC terminal installed, a summary of the Reference Users Group conference, authorization of the Minitex Advisory Committee, a summary of the OCLC cataloging users group, and the latest MULS (Minitex Union List of Serials) procedures and other updates.
This issue includes the following articles: OCLC Users Council Meets in Columbus on June 4 and 5; Visitors; Minnesotans Publish; OCLN Memberships; Automation in Duluth; More Publishing; People on the Move; Liz Stroup Meets with Rug Group; South Dakota Union List of Serials; Gustavus Award Winner; Recent Publications of Interest; Reference Users Group Meets; Responsive Reference Service; and The "Not Available" Response to ILLRO's.
This special issue on copyright includes information about how the new U.S. Copyright Law affects Minitex Document Delivery, guidelines for records retention, information on library supplies for displaying copyright information, ALA and Minitex Interlibrary Loan Request forms, copyright payment mechanisms, and a bibliogrpahy of copyright law and libraries resources.
This issue includes the following articles: The Uses of Online Databases; Using Online Techniques for Evaluation; Providing Services with Limited Resources; About the Database Directory; Codes of Vendors Supplying Online Services; Codes of Libraries Performing Online Searches; Directory of Online Subject Databases Searched in Minitex Libraries, 1979-1980; How to Use a Library; NEH Announces Challenge Grant Program; Bibliographic Instruction Workshop; and Happy Anniversary.
This issue includes the following articles: Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Loan; Minitex Document Delivery; Minitex Document Delivery Statistics 1978/79; WHCLIS Resolution on Networking; ALA Legislative Program; Reference Librarians: Save These Dates; Online Skills Development; Online Workshops Schedule; OCLC Acquisitions Subsystem; Ramsey County to Test OCLC Acquisitions Subsystem; Recommendation on use of OCLC-MARC Tapes; Iowa Fifth State in MULS.
This issue includes the following articles: Minitex Reference Services; Document Delivery Service; Back-Up Reference Service; Reference Services and Collection Development; Minitex Telephone and TWX Directory; Serving OCLC Users; Verifying ILL Requests on OCLC; Workshop on Workflow; Workshop on Library Instructions; Botany Journals; New Librarians, New Positions; New Participants; and Visitors to Minitex.
This special issue on AACR2 and the catalog includes information about the adoption of AACR2 and implications for cataloging procedures and practices. Minnesota librarians attended an institute in 1978 on "Closing the Catalog"; offered by LITA and a full summary of the event is included. This issue also contains a list of recently announced grants, RLIN (Research Libraries Group) replacing the former acronym of BALLOTS, and the new publication "The Role of the School Library Media Program in Networking."
This issue includes the following articles: Serials Collections in a Network Environment; OCLC Converts Data Base to AACR 2 Form; Quality Control Activities at OCLC; MPR Programs Available From Audio Archives; New Duluth Public Library Open; People/Minitex Directory; Serial Collection Management: A Bibliography.
This issue includes the following articles: Gustavus Library Endowment Fund; OCLC Internetwork Quality Control Council; Minnesota Theological Librarys Install Union COM Catalog; Plans Advance For Second ACRL Conference; The Tri-College University Library Consortium: A Decade of Growth; Minitex Reference; The CLIC COM Catalog; Windows to the Past: Minnesota County Atlases-A New Reference Tool; Reorganization of OCLC Symbol Displays; People; Minitex Library OCLC Sympols: A Directory; Olson Receives Piercy Award; Messenger Editor Leaves Minitex.
This issue includes the following articles: Technology, Work Assignments, and Staff Morale; St. Olaf College Part of Two Studies; Saint Paul Public Library's Newspaper Index Project; Symposium on the Future of the Liberal Arts College Library; Melsa Goes Online: Hennepin County's Assisted Reference Service; Thoughts on Resource Sharing; People; Celebrations; Reading on Networking; Online Bibliographic Training in Fargo; AACR2 Institute in Minneapolis; New Minitex Staff Member; Announcement of Minitex Position; OCLC Growth.
This issue includes the following articles: To Network or Not to Network Schools Face the Question; Networking Conference; Library Instruction for the College Undergraduate; Selective Bibliography for Library Instruction in Academe; Retrospective Conversion; OCLC/ILL Subsystem Training; EDUCOM Seminar; Rug Reference Resources Meeting; Automation, Codes and Standards in Technical Services and their Effect on Public Services; AACR2 Preconference; Theological Libraries Meeting; People in Minitex.