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.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Wahl on her legal and judicial career. E. Wahl was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1977 and served until 1994. Subjects discussed: her childhood, family life and education, her early career, and her experiences as a judge. Interviewed by Laura Cooper in Justice Wahl's chambers.
Interview with Xang Vang in which he discusses his work as a CIA operative during the Secret War in Laos 1961-1975 and his work in Minnesota as the Executive Director of the Lao Family Community of Minnesota. He also worked as a Hmong business entrepreneur and one of the first Hmong growers to sell produce at the St. Paul Farmers Market.
Interview with Sai Nou Vang in which he discusses his work as General Vang Pao's personal bodyguard and house manager. He also discusses his role as Captain in the CIA Secret War in Laos 1961-1975.
Interview with Dr. Chia Youyee Vang in which she describes her work as a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and as the author of ""Reconstructing Community in Diaspora"" and ""Hmong in Minnesota.""
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.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice John J. Todd on his legal and judicial career. John J. Todd was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1972 and served until 1985. Subjects discussed: his childhood and family, his legal career, his experiences as a judge, and his life after the Supreme Court. Interviewed by Tom Boyd and Justice Paul Anderson at the studio of Minnesota Continuing Legal Education.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice John J. Todd on his legal and judicial career. John J. Todd was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1972 and served until 1985. Subjects discussed: his childhood and family, his legal career, and his experiences as a judge. Interviewed by John Brian at the Minnesota Judicial Center.
Interview with Cy Thao in which he describes his work as a former Minnesota State Representative, his efforts as a Hmong business entrepreneur and artist and a co-founder of the Center for Hmong Arts and Talents.
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.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Edward Stringer on his legal and judicial career. Edward C. Stringer was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1994. He retired from the Court in 2002 and continued to work as a private attorney until he retired fully in 2011. Subjects discussed: his lawyer ancestors, his legal career, and his experiences as a judge. Interviewed by Tom Boyd and Justice Paul Anderson at the studio of Minnesota Continuing Legal Education.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice John Simonett on his legal and judicial career. Simonett was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1981 and served until 1994. Subjects discussed: his education and family life, and his experiences as a judge. Interviewed by Tom Boyd and Paul Anderson at the studio of Minnesota Continuing Legal Education.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Sheran on his legal and judicial career. Sheran was first appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1963 and served until 1970. He was reappointed to the Court as Chief Justice in 1973 and served until 1981. Subjects discussed: his education and experiences as a judge. Interviewed by Tim Baland at the Minnesota Judicial Center.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Walter Rogosheske on his legal and judicial career. He was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1962 and served until 1980. Subjects discussed: his family and childhood, education, early career, and his experiences as a judge. Interviewed by Randall Tietjen at the Minnesota Judicial Center.
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.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Popovich as part of the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society's oral history project. Popovich was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1987 and was Chief Justice from 1989 to 1990. Subjects discussed: his early decision to become a lawyer; growing up on the Iron Range in the 1920's and 1930's; being the son of an immigrant; his experiences as a lawyer, a legislator, and a judge.
Interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Maynard Pirsig on his legal and judicial career. Maynard Pirsig was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1942 and served for three months to finish the term of the late Justice Royal A. Stone. Subjects discussed: his legal career and his views on the role of the judiciary. Interviewed by Steve Young.
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.
Charlene Mason was Minitex Interim Director (1983/1984), and was on the search committee that hired Bill DeJohn, current Minitex director (1984-present), before finishing her library career at the University of Minnesota Libraries (1976-2001). She discusses her first library job held in 7th grade at Ames Public Library, early fax machines used for resource sharing, the hiring climate at the University of Minnesota after the 1979-80 Rajender v. University of Minnesota lawsuit, and working with Anita Branin (Minitex Associate Director for Document Delivery and MULS, 1980-1996) and MJ Rossman (Minitex Assistant Director for Reference and OCLC, 1980-1996) during the transition to a new Minitex director. This interview also includes an audio recording, recording table of contents, transcript, and photograph of the interviewee.
