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News & Events
Check back frequently for the latest news from the Bibliographic & Technical
Services Unit.
Minitex and OCLC Training
We've kept you informed about our changing relationship with OCLC, so you know that, as of July 1, you'll contact OCLC
with support questions related to OCLC products and services.
As part of these same changes, Minitex will continue offering OCLC-related training, but now you'll also have access to
training provided by other organizations around the country. Note that Minitex will be implementing differential pricing; fees
for registrants from the Minitex region will be lower than those for registrants from outside our region. We don't have many
training sessions scheduled yet, but look for more as we move into Fall.
Here is the official announcement about OCLC training:
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Minitex and OCLC continue to work together on behalf of OCLC member libraries.
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We are pleased to announce that OCLC and Minitex will work together to provide you with expanded access to
quality OCLC training and related educational offerings.
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Minitex has been certified to provide OCLC training—adhering to specific standards and use of OCLC-developed curriculum to
ensure consistency of training objectives across all OCLC product and service areas.
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As an OCLC-certified training provider, Minitex makes its OCLC-related course offerings available on the OCLC Training Portal,
a Web-based, customer-centered resource that allows you to locate and register for courses that meet your personal learning
objectives.
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The Training Portal displays OCLC-certified courses from all Training Partners across the U.S. All of the courses listed
on the Training Portal are available to anyone interested in learning more about using OCLC products and services.
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Social networking features available on the Training Portal allow you to join groups, add friends, bookmark courses
and much more.
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The OCLC Training Portal will be accessible starting July 1, 2009, by visiting
the OCLC Training Portal Web site.
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For questions regarding the OCLC Training Portal, call 1-800-848-5800, or email training@oclc.org.
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For questions specific to training opportunities offered by Minitex, call 800-462-5348 or 612-624-4002, visit
the Minitex Training and Events Web page or email mino@umn.edu.
(Added: 06/25/2009)
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Minitex and OCLC Changes
Please take note that the role Minitex has played in supporting your library's use of OCLC products and services will shift
somewhat in the coming fiscal year. As OCLC and Minitex continue to work in partnership on behalf of OCLC member libraries,
we would like to inform you about some important changes with regard to how your library will access support for OCLC products
and services.
- Beginning July 1, 2009, OCLC members will contact OCLC Customer Support for all questions related to support for OCLC products
and services. OCLC's teams of support professionals are available 14 hours a day, Monday-Friday, 6 AM - 8 PM Central Time,
to assist you with your needs. These dedicated individuals will provide answers and information to help your library maximize the
value of your membership and use of OCLC products and services.
- In addition to product support specialists, the OCLC Customer Support organization is also comprised of a specialized team of
librarians focused on providing consultative and workflow support tied to the use and satisfaction of OCLC products and services.
- OCLC Billing & Ordering: Minitex will continue to offer billing and ordering assistance to your library for OCLC products
and services.
- Technical Services: Minitex Bibliographic & Technical Services (BATS) will continue to provide non-OCLC-related services and
support that your library receives from Minitex today. For example, BATS will continue to provide support for general technical
services issues such as cataloging and workflow, and training in the areas of digitization and cataloging.
- Reference Services: Minitex Reference Services will continue to provide support for libraries participating in AskMN: The Librarian
Is In! which uses OCLC's QuestionPoint, the Minnesota NetLibrary shared collections, and Minnesota's statewide subscription to
WorldCat.
- Training: Minitex will continue to provide training on OCLC products and services as well as our other traditional topic areas.
- Minitex will also assist OCLC in keeping member libraries informed by communicating updates, enhancements, new product offerings,
research, membership reports and other important information on OCLC member benefits.
More details about this change in support will be sent out within the coming weeks. To contact OCLC Customer Support,
call 1-800-848-5800 or email support@oclc.org.
To contact Minitex BATS, call (800) 462-5348 or (612) 624-4002, or email mino@umn.edu.
(Added: 06/11/2009)
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Kay Beaudrie and Virginia Dudley Retire from Minitex
It is with decidedly mixed emotions that I announce the retirements of Kay Beaudrie and Virginia Dudley from Minitex on June 5, 2009.
Kay Beaudrie
Kay Beaudrie's retirement comes just one month shy of her 20th anniversary here! Her pre-Minitex career included stints in the
libraries of North Park College and Rosary College in Illinois, Alverno College and Marquette University in Wisconsin, and General Mills,
here in Minnesota. She joined Minitex as an OCLC Coordinator and, later, became the Manager of the Minitex/OCLC unit.
Kay is renowned for her training skills and her ability to clearly explain complex systems or processes. She walked many catalogers and ILL folks
through significant (and scary) changes like OCLC's moves to PRISM and Passport for Windows with a minimum of fuss and stress.
I can attest that, as a supervisor, she was supremely patient and encouraging and a textbook example of a servant-leader.
In 1998, Kay moved over to the Minitex Contract Cataloging unit, where she has contributed significant OCLC and cataloging expertise
to client libraries and continued her role as trainer and mentor to others in the unit.
Virginia Dudley
We have been very fortunate to have Virginia Dudley as a member of the Minitex BATS unit since 2001. Prior to joining Minitex,
she worked in the University of Minnesota Libraries and at Metropolitan State University. As a member of BATS, she quickly got up to
speed on OCLC issues and became our expert on OCLC Authorities and all things FRBR or RDA. She stepped up to oversee the unit during
my maternity leaves and has been Acting Manager of BATS since late 2007. I have greatly appreciated her dry wit, her high standards
and her strong dedication to her job and her colleagues. Virginia's plans for retirement are still hazy, but definitely include
watercolor painting, volunteerism, and identifying income-generating opportunities to shore up her faltering retirement account.
Please join us in thanking Kay and Virginia for their outstanding service to Minitex and our participating libraries throughout the years
and in wishing them well as they prepare for life after Minitex. They will both be missed!
—Carla Dewey Urban, Minitex
(Added: 05/28/2009)
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Call For CONTENTdm User Group Meeting Proposals
Do you plan to attend the 2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting on October 29-30, 2009, at the Pyle Center in Madison,
WI? Please consider participating by submitting a program proposal by Friday, May 1, 2009. To submit a proposal click on the
link below:
If you have an idea that you want to talk over with someone, help develop, or if you want to find a co-presenter
please note that on the proposal and we can work with you. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
- Audio and video projects
- Learning Management Systems and CONTENTdm
- Marketing your collection
- Funding your project
- Planning and implementing a digital project
- Metadata practices
- How individual institutions (or small consortia) are working with larger consortia
- Working with 3D objects (artifacts, museum objects)
- Generation and use of reports and statistics
- CONTENTdm server management
- Programming and application building (widgets, CONTENTdm API, other add ons)
- Workflow models
- Collections management and configuration
- Institutional Repositories and organizational archives
- Digital archiving and preservation of digital collections
- Non-newspaper text projects such as OCR extension, compound object documents, monographs, PDFs
- Licensing, intellectual property and digital rights management
- Project Client (CONTENTdm 5's Acquisition Station) tips and tricks
- Creating and using metadata controlled vocabulary
- Web templates and interface customizations
- Talk about and show your institution's CONTENTdm collections
WiLS, Minitex, and OCLC will sponsor the 2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting. There are over 40 institutions
in the region (MN, SD, ND, WI) currently using CONTENTdm to build their digital collections.
More than eighty people attended
the first meeting, which was held at Macalester College
in St. Paul, MN last year. This second meeting will continue to provide the opportunity for networking and sharing of CONTENTdm best practices among colleagues,
as well as a CONTENTdm product update and a preconference.
(Added: 04/21/2009)
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OCLC's Expert Community Experiment
Catalogers! Now is your chance to easily make more corrections to WorldCat records. Those of you with full OCLC cataloging
authorizations who wish to do so may now join OCLC's Expert Community Experiment and begin improving and upgrading more WorldCat
master records than was previously possible. This experiment began this week and is expected to last six months.
There are principles and guidelines associated with this experiment. For more information check out OCLC's Web site, which
contains the guidelines, an FAQ, and more information about the experiment.
Also, OCLC has scheduled several web information sessions. They are free but require registration (so that you will receive
instructions for participating). The link to registration is found at the same web page mentioned above. If you can't attend
one of the Webinars, don't worry. OCLC will make available a recording of one of the sessions.
If, after absorbing the Guidelines, the FAQ, and the webinar, you still have questions or need further information, you can contact
OCLC via the special email address they have set up: ASKQC@oclc.org
(Added: 02/19/2009)
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