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 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).
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.
A reproduction of a slide show and audio cassette created in the 1970's to educate library staff and to promote Minitex services. As part of the Minitex 50th Anniversary, the video was edited in 2021 by Carol Nelson with assistance from former Minitex staff Kathy Drozd, Dave Paulson, and Mark Eckes. Topics in the presentation include: Minitex resource sharing among libraries, the Minitex Union List of Serials, the technology used to communicate between libraries for resource sharing, the Minitex Reference and Information Network, Minitex workshops and training sessions, and how Minitex was initially funded.
Cecelia Boone began her career at University of Minnesota Libraries in the Social Welfare History Archives (June 1976-1978). There, she was a writer and editor on a project called the Women's History Sources Survey before joining Minitex and the MULS program in 1978. In her interview, she describes the MULS service and how it operated in the 1970s and 1980s; hand-writing library holdings data; typing up and storing the holdings data in the homegrown database at the University of Minnesota; supervising and working with student staff; the migration of the MULS records from the database to OCLC WorldCat in 1987 and 1988, and her experience working with Alice Wilcox (Minitex Director, 1969-1982). This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
Mark Eckes worked at Minitex from 1974 to 1984, when Minitex was just three years in to the program. He managed the Minitex staff (payroll, vacation, sick leave) and was responsible for office purchasing and OCLC billing. In his interview, he describes early technology used at Minitex for processing interlibrary loan requests, such as the TWX machine, and Minitex's first computer. Other topics discussed include the Minitex traveling slideshow, what it was like to work with Alice Wilcox (the first Minitex director), and the Minitex tennis and softball team. 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.
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.
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.
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.
