Did You Know?

Bringing the University Libraries to every citizen of Minnesota

Wilson Library's Information Commons is the model for a one-stop shop concept for helping students with research and writing. Photo by Patrick O'Leary

The University of Minnesota Libraries is the top-ranked research library in North America when measured by the number of books, articles and other material it loans to other libraries throughout North America and the world -- as well as to libraries in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.

Its top ranking among 113 North American research libraries is a testament to a wildly successful program begun in December 1968 that is best described by a University Alumni News headline from that era: "Bringing the University Libraries to every citizen of Minnesota."

That was the primary goal in creating the MINITEX (MINITEX Library Information Network) network, a system for sharing books and other documents between libraries. Nearly 40 years later, it's one of the best examples of the U fulfilling its "outreach and public service" mission for Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. After a successful pilot project in 1969-71, the Minnesota Legislature funded the MINITEX program with appropriations to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, which contracts with the University of Minnesota Libraries for the MINITEX services. Additional funds are provided by the state library agencies of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Last fiscal year, from the Andersen Library on the Twin Cities campus, the U Libraries sent out over 142,000 pieces of valuable material from its collection of more than 6.2 million volumes and 36,000 serial subscriptions to libraries in the Upper Midwest and all over the world. Sixty-five percent of those loans are to people in Minnesota -- everyone from eighth graders working on science fair projects to college professors developing scholarly articles.

In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, who founded the University of Virginia and promoted the idea that everyone -- not just the privileged few -- should have access to higher education, the University of Minnesota and MINITEX bring knowledge directly to the desktops of Minnesotans.

"Educating the common people [is the only] sure foundation... for the preservation of freedom and happiness," wrote Jefferson, whose private library became the foundation for the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world.

From its humble beginnings, when requests for information were sent to the U via teletype machines, the MINITEX network has expanded to include new programs such as the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM). ELM is funded by the Minnesota Legislature through the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Minnesota Department of Education.

ELM provides every Minnesotan with electronic access to more than 10,900 publications, 13,200 electronic books and a host of online encyclopedias, almanacs and other resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"We are a small district and cannot afford quality electronic databases on our own," wrote a teacher from Stewartville, Minn. "Without ELM, it's only books and the Internet for us... Our sixth graders use ELM extensively to research their Minnesota History Day projects. Truth be told, they would be lost without it."