Fiscal Year 2010 Overview: Facts & Figures
Fiscal Year 2010 (July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010) saw major developments for Minitex on several fronts,
most notably in:
Near Record Numbers of Requests for Interlibrary Loan and Delivery of Books, Articles, and Other Items
Fiscal Year 2010 saw the second highest number of requests received from library staff and
individual library patrons for the interlibrary loan of collection materials as well as a
new record in the number of items moved through the Minitex Delivery System.
The Minitex Resource Sharing program received and processed more than
431,000 requests for book loans, copies of articles, and other library collection materials,
down from about 438,000 in FY09. Requests came in via the MnLINK Gateway and other resource
sharing systems used by libraries in the three-state Minitex region (Minnesota, North Dakota,
and South Dakota) as well as from cooperating libraries in Wisconsin and beyond. Staff filled
more than 60% of the requests, many within 1-2 days.
Use of the MnLINK Gateway (Minnesota's statewide
virtual library catalog) showed a leveling off after years of consistent growth. The Gateway
carried nearly 583,000 borrowing requests in FY10 – a 3.1% decrease from FY09. The Minitex
staff and staffs of MnLINK Gateway libraries continued to be challenged as they worked to meet
requests submitted by individual library users and by library staff acting for users.
The Minitex Resource Sharing program is unique in its reach across the Upper Midwest and in the
participation of all types of libraries (including academic, public, government, and special
libraries throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and, through reciprocal agreements,
with Wisconsin).
Staff of the Minitex Delivery System handled 1.07 million items –
up from 1.04 million in FY09 – during the year to fill requests received by the Minitex
office and requests made directly among Minitex participating libraries.
The Delivery System provides the backbone delivery network for library interlibrary loan throughout
Minnesota and the Dakotas. Local libraries build upon that backbone by linking it with their local
and regional delivery systems, which move materials among their branch and cooperating libraries.
The Minitex Delivery System also connects with delivery systems in Wisconsin to provide fast,
dependable delivery of materials borrowed from and requested by Wisconsin libraries.
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FY10 was the first year of availability for the expanded set of electronic resources for Minnesotans
through Electronic Library for Minnesota and for residents of North Dakota and South Dakota under
provisions of the collaborative agreement. The databases provide online access to books; magazine,
journal, and newspaper articles; eBooks (electronic books); and information from other reference
sources including the academic, public library, and school editions of Britannica Online.
ELM included resources selected to help meet information needs across the full life span and educational
continuum for Minnesotans. 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. The ELM Portal provides single-site access
to all ELM databases.
Minnesotans made more than 17.7 million searches of the ELM resources during FY10. Demand has increased
61% since FY06.
FY10 saw growth in the use of MnKnows, the Minitex-supported
online portal that provides one-stop access to ELM, the MnLINK Gateway, Minnesota Reflections, AskMN,
and the Research Project Calculator, brought more searchers to these resources.
A coordinated program of on-air announcements and website advertisements on Minnesota Public Radio
began in September 2009 to help additional Minnesotans become familiar with MnKnows and its resources.
The ads continued through early 2010, and MnKnows website statistics showed a marked increase as the
announcements and advertisements continued. Display advertisements for ELM on the website of KSTP-FM
were used in February and March to bring new searchers to the elm4you.org website portal.
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More Resources and Participants in Minnesota Reflections
FY10 saw 11,400 additions to Minnesota Reflections,
a collection of more than 61,000 photos, maps, and other images documenting Minnesota history, from
more than 115 participating institutions. Minnesota Reflections, the initial project of the
Minnesota Digital Library (MDL), 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.
During FY10, the Minnesota Digital Library saw the first benefits of the Minnesota Historical and Cultural
Grants program, which was established after Minnesota voters approved a state constitutional amendment
in 2008. MDL received $500,000 for FY10 and FY11 through legislative appropriation to the Minnesota
Historical Society and Minitex.
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Participation by Minitex Staff in Google Books Project and HathiTrust
Minitex staff began work of two types related to the Google Digitization Project and the HathiTrust in
FY10. Staff for the Minnesota Library Access Center (MLAC) began pulling University of Minnesota Twin
Cities Libraries items from the MLAC shelves to be sent to Google as part of the
Google Digitization Project. The University Libraries plan,
ultimately, to contribute approximately 1 million volumes to the Project, about 220,000 of which may
come from the material the University Libraries have stored in MLAC.
The University Libraries' plan, which is in partnership with Google and through a joint agreement
with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC, a consortium of the Big 10 institutions plus
the University of Chicago) is to send books and serials periodicals to be scanned, made searchable,
and, depending upon copyright status, available online. CIC members are partnering with Google to
digitize millions of volumes from their libraries' collections. This is an important step to ensure
access to the libraries' print collections.
Minitex also began planning to partner with the University Libraries to participate in the work of the
Copyright Review Management
System (CRMS), a grant-funded program coordinated by the University of Michigan that supports the
HathiTrust, a partnership of major research institutions
and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the
future. The University Libraries are a founding member of the HathiTrust, and Minitex agreed to provide
staffing for the CRMS activity as part of its collaboration with the University Libraries. Minitex
staff have the required expertise for the project.
The HathiTrust Digital Library includes millions of volumes, a significant number of which were digitized
through the Google Digitization Project.
Minitex staff were trained in August 2010 and began work on the CRMS, which seeks to increase the
reliability of copyright status determinations of books published in the United States from 1923-1963
and to help create a point of collaboration with other institutions. Hundreds of thousands of books
were published in the U.S. between 1923-1963, and although many of these are likely to be in the public
domain, individuals must manually check their copyright status to make a determination. If a work is not
in the public domain, the full content cannot be made accessible online. CRMS will aid in making vast
numbers of books from this period available in full online to the general public.
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