Nancy Walton worked in Minnesota, Maryland, California, and Morocco before returning to Minnesota. In Minnesota, she started out at the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library (1994-1998), State Library Programs Specialist (1998-2010), and ended her career by serving as State Librarian and Director of State Library Services (2010-2013).
In her interview, she touches on her first experience working in her school library as a member of the Library Club at Minneapolis's Washburn High School to working as a Peace Corp volunteer in Rabat, Morocco (1971-1974), to working within State Library Services. Other topics touched on in her interview include: working in the Ames Collection in Wilson Library (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) next to Minitex staff in 1969; working with Bill DeJohn (Minitex Director, 1984-2012); her role as State Librarian in providing equity of access to information and resources; the 1994 expansion of the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library in Faribault; the 2002 closing of the library for the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning and layoffs of State Library staff; the disbursement of State Library Services professional library collection to St. Catherine University's School of Library and Information Science; the long history of the State Library Services and the Regional Public Library systems in Minnesota, and words of wisdom to library staff today. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Minitex commissioned a poem by Minneapolis artist Diver Van Avery to commemorate the 50th anniversary during National Poetry Month. The poem was written on a typewriter for the occasion on April 30, 2021.
Mary Treacy is former director of Metronet (1981-1999), one of seven state-funded multitype library networks created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1979. During her interview, Mary describes her first job as a librarian at Washington D.C. Teacher's College (1965) in a post Brown v Board of Education climate; emerging technologies, such as beta testing ERIC on microfiche; The Twin Cities Library Club; the 1982 Metronet sponsored conference, ""Question of Balance, Public Sector/Private Sector Interaction in the Delivery of Information Services""; the role of Metronet and Minitex; starting a college library at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (1999); SMILE (Southcentral Minnesota Inter-Library Exchange) before funding was available for multitype library networks, and her time at the ALA Washington office (1996). This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Roger Sween began his professional library career in Wisconsin at UW-Platteville before moving back to Minnesota in the mid-1970s. He worked at Red Wing Public Library and St. Cloud State University Library before he joined State Library Services, Minnesota Department of Education as library cooperation specialist from 1984-2000.
In the interview Roger Sween talks about his first library job as a student working in Rolvaag Memorial Library at St. Olaf; events in Minnesota that led to the development of Minitex; evolution of the multicounty, multitype library systems in Minnesota; his work with the Minnesota Educational Media Organization (MEMO) and creation of the first school library media standards (2000) in the state; and involvement in a 1984 report on economic vitality that resulted in the theme of the American Library Association Annual Conference and the Minnesota Library Annual Conference. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Helen Stub was the secretary-treasurer of the Twin City Library Club (TCLC) when the organization dissolved around 1959. Founded in 1906, the Twin City Library Club was an organization intended to help librarians in St. Paul and Minneapolis become acquainted with each other and the library collections of the Twin Cities. Helen reflects in the interview:
"This group of people were active participants in the intellectual, aesthetic, educational, political life of that period between 1906-1959. And, that period included two World Wars, a depression, the recovery, the New Deal, droughts, and, of course, the invention of the automobile."
Helen Stub discusses the founding of the organization by Clara Baldwin (Director, Public Library Commission, 1889-1936), John King (Director, Minnesota State Library), Gratia Countryman (Director, Minneapolis Public Library), W.W. Folwell (President, University of Minnesota, 1869-1884) and relays tales from the Secretary-Treasurer's books that chronicle the events of the library profession in the Twin Cities. These include summaries of lectures, reports on library successes, and descriptions of a 1908 list of periodicals of the libraries in Minneapolis and St. Paul, early interlibrary loan, site visits to libraries, announcement of the first bookmobile, parties at the H.W. Wilson company, boat trips on the Mississippi, road tours by car, and elegant dinners.
Helen began her library career in Fairfax, MN, in 1948, moving to St. Paul Park in 1952, and, then, as a librarian in the Minneapolis School District from 1955-1980. She served as President of Minnesota Educational Media Organization from 1977-1978. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Joan Roca retired from his role as Dean of Library Services at Minnesota State University Mankato in 2018. In this interview, he discusses his professional history, including his role and recollections of the development of the PALS software, his work on MNLINK systems integration committee, and as a member of other library professional committees. Joan credits several of his mentors -- Dale Carrison, Sylverna Ford, Bill DeJohn, Mary Parker, Keith Ewing, Tom Shaughnessy, and Wendy Lougee -- as having positive and lasting impacts on his career trajectory. This interview also includes an audio recording, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Dave Paulson joined Minitex staff as a student in 1973. Throughout his career at Minitex, he has worked in nearly every campus library at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Today he is the Resource Sharing Manager who oversees retrieval at our campus libraries.
In this interview, Dave talks about what the work in Resource Sharing was like in the early days, the staff softball team, and how Minitex electronic delivery got started. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Mary Rae Oxborrow was one of the first full-time professional staff to be hired at Minitex in 1969. In the interview she describes what is was like to work with Minitex's first director, Alice Wilcox; her main role at Minitex in bibliographic problem solving; a Halloween South Dakota trip gone bad on Needles Highway near Rapid City; early technology used at Minitex for sending interlibrary loan requests (for example, teletype machines); staff parties; Minitex office locations during the pilot project and beyond; and the first Minitex logo, the winged messenger. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Doris Ott served for eight years as North Dakota State Librarian (2002-2010). A native of Carson, ND, Ott graduated from Dickinson State University, and earned her MLS from George Peabody College (now, Vanderbilt University) in Nashville. She started her professional librarian career as an Assistant Professor of Library Science at Dickinson State, was the first librarian at Magic City Campus in Minot, and held positions at a school library and a public library in Indiana before returning to North Dakota in 1986. From 1986-2002 she worked at the North Dakota State Library and held various positions before being named State Librarian in 2002. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Rosie Mock started and ended her library career at Memorial Library, Minnesota State University, Mankato (1969-2012). In her interview, she discusses what it was like to work in Cataloging in the 1970s, before automation, and in Systems. Other topics touched on include: early OCLC searching (1976), development of the PALS online catalog (1980), using early electronic databases such as Dialog, and the migration from the PALS system to the Aleph ILS (2004). This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Barbara Misselt led the East Central Regional Library as Library System Director for 9 years, retiring April 1, 2017. Misselt's first library job was at the Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, before moving to SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating) in Rochester, Minnesota, and ending her career at East Central Regional Library in Cambridge, Minnesota. In the interview, she discusses her connection to Minitex, working with former Minitex Director Bill DeJohn, Becky Ringwelski (former Associate Director of Minitex for Resource Sharing), Kathy Drozd (former Assistant Director for Delivery), and other influential colleagues from Minnesota libraries and the State Library. This interview includes an audio recording and full transcript.
This issue includes the following articles: Information Data Base Services; Three Services to Libraries; The History of Some Terminology; Preservation of Minnesota Newspapers at the Minnesota Historical Society; Minnesota State University Project for Automation of Library Systems (MSU/PALS): Planning for the Future; AACR2 in Minnesota; OCLC Use Increases; AACR 2 and OCLC; OCLC Search Retrieval Enhancements Soon to be Implemented; OCLC Users Council Elects Officers; Western Council Resource Sharing Planning Conference; GPO Named Center of Document Cataloging; St. Paul Public Library Initiates Computer Catalog System; People; New Coordinators Join Minitex Staff; Congressional Information Service Seminars; ""Everyone's Guide..."" Is Back Again.
This issue includes the following articles: Planning and Library Cooperation; Reference Service Evaluation; New Advisory Committee; and a large section on OCLC and Library Automation. The OCLC and Library Automation section contains background on what OCLC is; a history of Minitex OCLC participation; cooperative cataloging in OCLC; first time use (FTU) of an OCLC record; how to become an OCLC participant; the OCLC interlibrary loan, serial control, and acquisitions subsystems; and a diretory of Minitex libraries on OCLC.
This issue includes the following articles: OCLC Users Council; Minitex Brochure insert; Minitex Annual Meeting; OCLC Interlibrary Loan Subsystem Test; Serials Management Workshop; Farewell to Lois Upham; USOE Grant Deadlines; Academic Library Grant Program Announced; Positions (new library staff); Honors; Minitex Libraries on OCLC: A Directory; Minitex 'NLOC' Service; OCLC Codes for Minitex Libraries; Using OCLC to Verify Minitex ILL Requests; Directory of Minnesota Libraries; and Colleagues Publish.
This issue includes the following articles: Bush Foundation Grants Funds for On-Line Cataloging and Data Base Development; Proposed Copyright Clearance Procedures for Photocopying in Libraries; New Librarians -- New Participants; New Minitex Directory, Annual Report; Reference and Interlibrary Loan Resources; Regional Meetings; Cataloging: Projections for the Future; Minitex Libraries on OCLC: A Directory; Recent Visitors to Minitex; New Edition of MULS, and On-Line User Workshops.
This issue includes the following articles: Minitex: A Status Report; WILS-WLC: Library Cooperation in Wisconsin; South Dakota Health Sciences Library Consortium: Multi-Type Resource Sharing; OCLC Names New President; OCLC Users Council Annual Report Summary; OCLC Development Schedule; OCLC Users and AACR2 Questions; OCLC System Down While Converting to AACR2; OCLC Participating Libraries; CRL Receives Two Ford Grants; MPLIC Designated as Patent Depository; COMCAT Education Project; Legal Reference Servives Committee Formed; Minitex Reference Service Notes; Telecommunications Change for Minitex; ""Everyone's Guide..."" For Winter Quarter; People; and New Minitex Participant.
This issue is the annual report for 1977-1978. Highlights include a new contract with South Dakota State Library and Minitex for sharing resources; increased Resource Sharing, the MULS 2nd edition publication; Bush Foundation grants to support OCLC participation' an increase in Back-Up Reference requests; a summary of copyright and reference training and meetings, and statistics (including a table).
This issue includes a diagram of the program, services, resources, and participating libraries. Each Minitex service is highlighted including the following: Communication Network, Document Delivery, Bibliographic Database, Collection Development, Information and Reference Network, Continuing Education, Online Bibliographic Searches, and Regional Sharing. Future plans for Minitex and participating library contacts are also included.
This issue is the 1982/1983 Minitex status report and includes background information, program updates, Document Delivery request and participants graph, Reference request graph, MULS Publications bar chart, a list of Minitex participating libraries, a history of Minitex activities in a table, and the list of Minitex Advisory Council members.
This is a special report of the OCLC Users Council by Minitex OCLC Representatives. Included are summaries on the economic impact of AACR2 on libraries and the OCLC Inter-Network Quality Control Council, as well a a directory of Minitex libraries on OCLC.
This issue includes the following articles: Bibliographic and Physical Resource Sharing in Minitex; Access to Minitex Libraries in Bibliographic Databases; Libraries and the 1980 Census; Minitex OCLC AACR2 Regional Meetings; OCLC'S Name-Address Directory; Minitex at Texas Instruments Symposium; Ramsey County Begins OCLC Acquisitions Subsystem Evaluation; ARL Adopts Plan for Improving Access to Microforms; Database Workshops; People; Minitex Directory Changes; Minnesota Statutes Index Errata Available; Everyone's Guide to the Whole Library.
This issue includes information about the Minitex Continuing Education Program and week-long workshops for Reference Librarians, an overview of the newly initiated Minitex Reference Service, and an overview of the Minnesota Union List of Serials emerging Minitex program.
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.
This special issue on online databases includes information about the types of data in databases, online database searching protocols, online search services in the U.S. and costs, a glossary of common database terms, a bibliography of online bibliographic services, the Minitex online search service and sample search request form, a directory of online database, subject databases search in Minitex libraries, and a summary of the Reference Users Group meeting.
This issue is the 1981/1982 Minitex status report and includes background information, program updates, a program history appendix in table form, details Minitex Document Delivery statistics, a map of participants, financial statements, activity level graphs, and a list of Minitex participating libraries.
