Text
September 25, 2012
38 notes

Apology to Stuff about Minneapolis about his experience in Special Collections

We were sad to see this posted yesterday by stuffaboutminneapolis, our favorite tumblr:

Paul, have you actually been to the historical society on the 4th floor of the central library? I was there a couple weeks ago helping my friend pinpoint the year of this postcard he has of Nicollet Park. But it’s so fascinating and I could get lost in there forever, with all the directories and maps and archives they have. I’ve been using the microfilm incessantly too, and this is just for some 2002/03 Twins stuff and between my friend and I, we’ve probably spent at least 8 hours on it.

Yes. I was there a few months ago, I walked in and the librarian asked if I needed help, I said no, I’m just looking around, and she told me this isn’t where you “just look around”, you need to have a reason to come in here. I said “I’ve never been here, not sure what I what to look up”. She said, “that’s what the main library is for, you need to be here for a reason”. So, long story short…I rolled my eyes and left.

True story.

Here is the response we just sent to Paul:

Paul,

We are profoundly sorry you had an unsatisfactory experience in Special Collections.  In the last year we have been liberalizing our policies due to changing circumstances in the reading room.  We have eliminated the need to register, make an appointment for most materials and have opened up areas of the reading room to browsing (Kittleson WWII, city directories, card catalog, etc.).  This is a big culture change from how we have been doing things for the last six years.  Due to security and staffing issues when Special Collections re-opened in the new Minneapolis Central Library in 2006, we were required to severely curtail service to walk-in patrons and researchers that wanted to browse the collection.

We now have a different staffing model and our rare 19th Century Collection has been moved out of the reading room into the Special Collections vault where it belongs. Instead of registering patrons, we now only hold Library Card/ID for high school yearbooks and vault materials.  We also have moved our heavily used collections into the reading room.  If a patron wants something paged from the vault we still ask them to notify us prior to visiting but for the most part we can get a researcher started on their project when they come through our door.

 Your experience reminds us we need to more uniformly explain our new policies to all our visitors so we can emphasize the more welcoming environment we are endeavoring to establish. 

Our sincerest apologies,

Special Collections

Tags: stuffaboutminneapolis Special Collections Customer Service

Video
September 19, 2012
4 notes

Have you seen the TPT documentary on Special Collections: Treasures Collected, Treasures Shared yet?

(Source: vimeo.com)

Tags: Special Collections TPT

Video
September 16, 2012
1 note

TThe Story of a House (by hclib)

Tags: TPT Special Collections

Video
September 15, 2012

Flashback: WWII Propaganda Posters (by hclib)

Tags: Special Collections Propaganda Posters

Video
September 14, 2012
1 note

Introducing…Hennepin County Library’s Special Collections (by hclib)

In anticipation of the premiere of the TPT documentary on Special Collections (Sunday, September 16 at 8 pm on the TPT MN Channel) we are debuting three short videos that were made in concert with the documentary.  A video on the WWII posters will debut tomorrow and a video on house history research will debut on Sunday.

Tags: Special Collections Ted Hathaway

Photo
September 11, 2012
3 notes
HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY’S JAMES K. HOSMER SPECIAL COLLECTIONS TO BE EXPLORED IN TPT DOCUMENTARY PREMIERING SEPT. 16 Hennepin County Library’s James K. Hosmer Special Collections may be a hidden gem to many library patrons, but its wealth of information has been discovered by many authors and other serious researchers at Hennepin County Library – Minneapolis Central, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. You can learn all about the Library’s Special Collections when tpt premieres a new documentary, “Treasures Collected, Treasures Shared” at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16 on tpt MN. The 27-minute documentary will be rebroadcast on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on tpt MN, and at noon on tpt LIFE.   The documentary is a collaboration between Hennepin County Library and tpt and was funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  Interviews with staff and five local researchers offer a glimpse of the tens of thousands of resources available in the Library’s Special Collections, which is located on the fourth floor of Minneapolis Central Library. They include books, photographs, videos, DVDs, sound recordings, oral histories, news clippings, annual reports, yearbooks, pamphlets, government documents, programs, catalogs, postcards, flyers, advertisements, maps, posters, and drawings.  Because of the huge scope of the collection, librarian Ted Hathaway, Special Collections manager, said it’s difficult to describe it in just a few words. “We have so many different kinds of resources here that people use for many different reasons,” he said. Librarians are available to help patrons find what they need.  Penny Petersen, historian and researcher at Hess Roise Historical Consultants; Dan Chouinard, musician and storyteller, Minnesota Public Radio; Joyce Wisdom, executive director of the Lake Street Council; Linda James, librarian, researcher, and producer of tpt’s “Lost Twin Cities” series; and Chris and Rushika Hage, authors of “Nicollet Island: History and Architecture,” discuss how using the Library’s Special Collections has enhanced their knowledge and understanding of history to share with others — in books, on the radio and on television, and when creating historic walking tours.  “My first trip to Special Collections was two years ago as I was writing a show for the Minnesota Historical Society about the construction of I-94 between the downtowns and the impact it had on neighborhoods and land along the route,” Chouinard said. “I was guided to boxes of newspaper articles from the 1950s and 1960s and cartoon brochures selling the freeway idea to Twin Cities residents — ‘The Automobile Is Here to Stay. What’s the Answer? FREEWAYS!’ It was a fascinating look at what regular folk were reading in the daily papers and getting in their mailboxes, and much of what I found wound up in my script and on the screen.”  “I’ve made use of Special Collections for three writing projects now, with at least another two on deck,” he continued. “I know I’ve barely scratched the surface and I’m looking forward to making use of the tremendous staff expertise and the vast content, especially the World War II collections which I’ll be using in a show for MPR in January.”  Hathaway invites the public to visit the Library’s Special Collections to pursue their interests, whether researching World War II, writing Wikipedia articles, or undertaking any of the many other types of research that patrons do.  DVD copies of the documentary will be added to Hennepin County Library’s collection and will be available for checkout at Minneapolis Central Library and other libraries after the documentary airs on tpt.  Additional short videos produced by tpt about the Library’s Special Collections, including the Kittleson World War II Collection and house history resources, will be posted on Hennepin County Library’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.  

HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY’S JAMES K. HOSMER SPECIAL COLLECTIONS TO BE EXPLORED IN TPT DOCUMENTARY PREMIERING SEPT. 16

Hennepin County Library’s James K. Hosmer Special Collections may be a hidden gem to many library patrons, but its wealth of information has been discovered by many authors and other serious researchers at Hennepin County Library – Minneapolis Central, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. You can learn all about the Library’s Special Collections when tpt premieres a new documentary, “Treasures Collected, Treasures Shared” at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16 on tpt MN. The 27-minute documentary will be rebroadcast on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on tpt MN, and at noon on tpt LIFE. 

 The documentary is a collaboration between Hennepin County Library and tpt and was funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

 Interviews with staff and five local researchers offer a glimpse of the tens of thousands of resources available in the Library’s Special Collections, which is located on the fourth floor of Minneapolis Central Library. They include books, photographs, videos, DVDs, sound recordings, oral histories, news clippings, annual reports, yearbooks, pamphlets, government documents, programs, catalogs, postcards, flyers, advertisements, maps, posters, and drawings.

 Because of the huge scope of the collection, librarian Ted Hathaway, Special Collections manager, said it’s difficult to describe it in just a few words. “We have so many different kinds of resources here that people use for many different reasons,” he said. Librarians are available to help patrons find what they need.

 Penny Petersen, historian and researcher at Hess Roise Historical Consultants; Dan Chouinard, musician and storyteller, Minnesota Public Radio; Joyce Wisdom, executive director of the Lake Street Council; Linda James, librarian, researcher, and producer of tpt’s “Lost Twin Cities” series; and Chris and Rushika Hage, authors of “Nicollet Island: History and Architecture,” discuss how using the Library’s Special Collections has enhanced their knowledge and understanding of history to share with others — in books, on the radio and on television, and when creating historic walking tours.

 “My first trip to Special Collections was two years ago as I was writing a show for the Minnesota Historical Society about the construction of I-94 between the downtowns and the impact it had on neighborhoods and land along the route,” Chouinard said. “I was guided to boxes of newspaper articles from the 1950s and 1960s and cartoon brochures selling the freeway idea to Twin Cities residents — ‘The Automobile Is Here to Stay. What’s the Answer? FREEWAYS!’ It was a fascinating look at what regular folk were reading in the daily papers and getting in their mailboxes, and much of what I found wound up in my script and on the screen.”

 “I’ve made use of Special Collections for three writing projects now, with at least another two on deck,” he continued. “I know I’ve barely scratched the surface and I’m looking forward to making use of the tremendous staff expertise and the vast content, especially the World War II collections which I’ll be using in a show for MPR in January.”

 Hathaway invites the public to visit the Library’s Special Collections to pursue their interests, whether researching World War II, writing Wikipedia articles, or undertaking any of the many other types of research that patrons do.

 DVD copies of the documentary will be added to Hennepin County Library’s collection and will be available for checkout at Minneapolis Central Library and other libraries after the documentary airs on tpt.

 Additional short videos produced by tpt about the Library’s Special Collections, including the Kittleson World War II Collection and house history resources, will be posted on Hennepin County Library’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.

 

Tags: Chris Hage Dan Chouinard Joyce Wisdom Penny Petersen Rushika Hage Special Collections TPT Ted Hathaway Linda James

Photoset
June 25, 2012
4 notes

Arch at the entry of Special Collections

This mahogany arch originally served as the fireplace over mantel in the Ladies Reading Room in the Main Library at 10th and Hennepin Avenue that opened in 1889.

In 1960 the arch was relocated to the second Minneapolis Central Library building at 4th and Hennepin Avenue and served as a niche for the Minerva statue (now in the library’s atrium). Since Minneapolis Central opened in 2006 it has served as the entrance for Special Collections.

Tags: Minneapolis Public Library Special Collections

Photo
May 31, 2012
1 note
Special Collections Open Hours Expand on June 2nd Effective Saturday, June 2nd, Special Collections at Minneapolis Central Library will be open 10 am to 4:30 pm, adding one hour to each day we are open (Monday-Thursday and the first and third Saturdays of the month). Previous to Saturday we have been closed from 1-2 pm on days we are open.  The photo above is of workers repairing the Minneapolis City Hall clock in January, 1948.

Special Collections Open Hours Expand on June 2nd

Effective Saturday, June 2nd, Special Collections at Minneapolis Central Library will be open 10 am to 4:30 pm, adding one hour to each day we are open (Monday-Thursday and the first and third Saturdays of the month). Previous to Saturday we have been closed from 1-2 pm on days we are open. 

The photo above is of workers repairing the Minneapolis City Hall clock in January, 1948.

Tags: Minneapolis City Hall Special Collections Customer Service