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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.