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Fiscal Year 2008 Program Administration: Facts & Figures

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Minitex, an information and resource sharing program of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota Libraries, is a publicly supported network of academic, public, K-12 school, state government, and special libraries working cooperatively to improve library service for their users. Minitex is located at the University of Minnesota and is a division of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Libraries.

Funding & Reciprocal Agreements

Minitex receives legislative appropriations through the Minnesota Office of Higher Education to enable Minnesota academic and state government libraries to share their collections to support their students, faculty, and other users. The Minnesota Legislature also provides appropriations to Minitex to operate a suite of programs that enhances and supports resource sharing.

Minitex staff negotiates contracts for services with Minnesota State Library Services, the Minnesota state library agency, and with the state libraries in North Dakota and South Dakota to support Minitex services for additional Minnesota libraries and for libraries in the Dakotas. Minitex also collaborates with WiLS, a Wisconsin library consortium, and Wisconsin libraries to operate an extensive interstate resource sharing program and provide training for staff of Minitex and Wisconsin libraries. Separate agreements enable resource sharing between Minitex libraries and others beyond the three-state region. The University of Minnesota receives no direct reimbursement for services it provides to host the Minitex service program.

Administrative Organization

The Minitex Policy Advisory Council advises the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Minitex Director in planning, development, and evaluation of Minitex programs and services and provides a forum for active discussion. Appointment to the Policy Advisory Council is made by the Director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education based upon nominations from the various types of Minnesota libraries that participate in Minitex programs. The State Librarian, who is the director of Minnesota State Library Services (the Minnesota state library agency), is an ex officio member as are the state librarians of North and South Dakota and the Library System Director for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

The Minnesota Office of Higher Education, the Minitex Policy Advisory Council, and the Minitex staff collaboratively set goals and objectives and define services. During FY08, Minitex carried out the day-to-day operation of its programs and services with a staff of 87 plus 162 student workers.

Working in response to increasing pressures on the budgets of participating libraries, the MINITEX Policy Advisory Council approved revisions to the Criteria for Participation in Minitex during FY08. The Criteria describe the role and responsibilities of Minnesota academic and state government libraries that take part in Minitex resource sharing services. The revised Criteria restate the importance of having a full-time professional librarian oversee the library services of participating libraries and that libraries should meet 95 percent of the information needs of their user communities from their local collections or local arrangements. The goal is to see that no library relies too heavily on resources available through Minitex. Minitex and MnSCU are working with some small two-year MnSCU institutions to help them provide adequate library services for their students and faculty.

In addition to determining general Minitex policies, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education is responsible for Minitex program evaluation, external relations, and legislative liaison. The University of Minnesota Libraries provide access to their extensive collections of monographs, serials, services, and other materials for Minitex participating libraries. Minneapolis Public Library, which merged into Hennepin County Library in January 2008, serves as the second major resource collection searched daily by Minitex staff to fill incoming requests. Requests not filled from these collections are referred to other libraries known to have the item.

MINITEX Participating Libraries, Fiscal Year 2008

  • 158 Academic Libraries
  • 180 Public Libraries
  • 89 Special Libraries
  • 1731 K-12 School Libraries