Minitex

Funded by the Minnesota State Legislature to serve higher education communities, and it also provides services for public, school, and specialized libraries in Minnesota through contracts with the Minnesota Department of Education. The purpose of Minitex is to enhance library effectiveness by expanding information resources for libraries and providing services to their patrons. Minitex offers access to training, workshops, conferences, and events for the library and education community.

• Illustration — Minitex Messenger, Volume 1, Number 1, May 1974, with diagram of early Minitex services and programs Libraries and their patrons can access a number of different services and information resources. These components include the MNLINK, ELM, Minnesota Digital Library, Ebooks Minnesota, AskMN, and the Minnesota Library Access Center. The MNLINK interlibrary loan system enables users to request materials from one of 600 participating Minnesota libraries to be shared. The Electronic Library for Minnesota is a collection of statewide research and information databases available to the public. Ebooks Minnesota provides a publicly available collection of ebooks. In addition, the Minitex system links library loans from the University of Minnesota Libraries collection, other participating libraries, and other resource sharing services. Other programs managed by Minitex include the Minnesota Digital Library, a digital library of Minnesota-specific primary and secondary sources from cultural heritage organizations across the state, and the Minnesota Library Access Center, a storage facility for collections from 21 libraries.