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Fiscal Year 2008 Overview: Facts & Figures
Fiscal Year 2008 saw major developments for Minitex on several fronts, most notably in:
Document Delivery & MnLINK Gateway
Minitex's Document Delivery Service continued to integrate the high volume of interlibrary loan requests
submitted through the MnLINK Gateway with those arriving via other resource sharing systems in Minnesota,
North Dakota, and South Dakota during Fiscal Year 2008. More than 392,000 requests were received in the
Minitex Office—a new record for the number of requests received in a single year. Staff filled more
than 66 percent of the requests, many within 1-2 days.
This massive interlibrary loan program means that residents throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, and South
Dakota can use materials owned by libraries throughout the three-state region and Wisconsin—as well
as throughout the United States and abroad.
Staff of the Minitex Delivery System handled 1.03 million items during the year to fill requests received
by the Minitex Office and requests made directly among participating libraries. This was more than a 13
percent increase over FY07.
Use of the MnLINK Gateway (Minnesota's statewide virtual library catalog) continued to grow. Minitex Office
staff received and processed more than 180,000 Gateway requests—a 5 percent increase from FY07. The
Minitex Office and staffs of MnLINK Gateway libraries were stretched as they worked to meet requests submitted
by individual library users and by library staff acting for users.
Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM)
ELM gives Minnesota residents online access to books; magazine, journal, and newspaper articles; eBooks
(electronic books); and information from other reference sources. ELM provides information about a vast
array of topics, including consumer information, arts and humanities, current events, health, science,
social science, politics, business, and more. Minnesotans continued to increase their usage of ELM during
Fiscal Year 2008, making nearly 12 million searches of ELM databases—an increase of 1 million over FY07.
The ELM Portal (elm4you.org) provides single-site access to all ELM databases. In January 2008, Minitex staff
implemented a new feature for the Portal, which directs the Portal search software to verify whether the
searcher is accessing the site from within Minnesota. If the searcher's computer is recognized as being from
within Minnesota, the searcher is allowed direct access to the ELM resources. If it cannot be verified that
the searcher's computer is based in Minnesota, the searcher is prompted to enter his or her Minnesota public
library barcode. ELM users must continue to use their library barcode to access ELM's EBSCO databases through
the Portal and when they search ELM via the MnLINK Gateway and through individual public library Web sites.
The suite of ELM databases will continue unchanged through June 30, 2009 (FY09). Work is underway on a Request
for Proposals. Award(s) will be announced in May 2009 for the contract period beginning July 1, 2009.
Minnesota Digital Library (MDL)
Use of Minnesota Reflections, a collection of more than 30,000 photos, maps, and other images documenting
Minnesota history, continued to grow in FY08. Minnesota Reflections, MDL's initial project, contains images
of items maintained in the collections of libraries, historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions
across the state. Instructional materials for teachers enhance the value of the collection as an educational tool.
A new option added in early 2008 gives searchers of the Minnesota Reflections database the option of adding
comments about the images—similar to the social tagging options used in other online databases of photographs.
Comments from searchers have provided more specifics about people and locations pictured in images, and this
comments feature has helped build interest in use of the database. As of the end of FY08, 87 comments by 62
authors had been added to 76 images.
Collaboration
Minitex collaborates with other library agencies and organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota
to foster resource sharing and effective use of information resources.
During Fiscal Year ‘08, examples of these activities included work by Minitex staff with:
AskMN
AskMN: The Librarian Is In (Minnesota's statewide cooperative virtual reference service) debuted early in 2008
providing Minnesotans with the opportunity for real-time conversations with reference librarians 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. Staff members of AskMN participating libraries answer questions from residents during selected
hours Monday-Saturday with backup service provided by a national cooperative reference program at times not
covered by Minnesota libraries. The service proved popular with users of both public and academic
libraries—with approximately 55 percent of the questions coming in at times covered by librarians outside
Minnesota.
Open Source Integrated Library Systems
Working with staff of libraries throughout Minnesota, Minitex staff participated in discussions about Open Source
alternatives to traditional library systems. The discussion occurred in response to the growth of interest in Open
Source software systems through which source code is freely available as opposed to traditional vendor packages that
require substantial initial investments and offer more limited options for customization of individual implementations.
Learn More About Minitex Programs & Services
These activities, and others, were carried out through the integrated programs of Minitex.