Executive Summary
Powering curiosity, discovery, and connection!
The University Libraries develops and supports traditional and innovative services, collections, and partnerships that engage the University’s faculty, staff, and students in the pursuit of knowledge. As the state’s only R1 research library, we reach well beyond campus borders to develop and deliver high-demand services and programs to 5.5 million Minnesota residents through our Minitex program. Our Archives and Special Collections is expansive and world-renowned. It serves campus, several distinct off-campus communities, and researchers from around the world — with a foremost goal of equitable and open access to all.
Our Health Sciences Libraries advance the University’s academic health priorities through state-of-the art collections, integration of evidence-based practice skills, application of advanced research methodologies, and active learning. This collaborative effort is shaping the future of care and is delivered to programs on the Twin Cities, Duluth, and Rochester campuses.
Our work is increasingly collaborative, interdisciplinary, experiential, deeply enabled by technology, and draws on the creativity and expertise of a wide variety of library staff.
Headcounts: Fall 2023
Unit-Specific Measures & Data
The Libraries serves more than 1million visitors in its 12 locations, answers 18,000+ research questions annually, and delivers 700+ workshops each year.
The Libraries subscribes to more than 309,000 serials/journals, manages 7.9 million physical volumes, and makes available 1.6 million e-books.
Organizational Structure/Design
- University Librarian/Dean of Libraries
- Lisa German
- Collections and Content Strategy
- Student Success
- Research
- Archives & Special Collections
- Minitex
- Administration
Key Areas of Strength & Strategic Opportunities
Strength: Knowledgeable, innovative, and dedicated staff
Libraries staff are innovative leaders, dedicated to their profession and to the University of Minnesota. Examples include:
- As the home to the Data Curation Network, our staff are key to building a trusted community-led network of curators who advance open research by making data more ethical, reusable, and understandable.
- We have trained hundreds of librarians across the country in systematic reviews and evidence synthesis through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
- The Mapping Prejudice team collaborates with community members to identify and map racial covenants, exposing the history of structural racism.
- Our staff partners with the Research & Innovation Office to provide training, 1-1 consultations, and key library resources to help University researchers comply with new federal policies that requires them to have a data management and sharing plan.
- We integrate course materials into Canvas, saving students millions of dollars each year.
Strength: Community Engagement
Minitex is a unique collaboration between the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota Libraries that brings electronic and print resources to every citizen of the state plus North Dakota and South Dakota. Minitex was founded more than 50 years ago as a way to share University Libraries resources throughout Minnesota. Last year, Minitex delivered 81,000 UMN items to Minnesota libraries across the state, including 13,000 to Minnesota state colleges and universities.
We partner with Minnesota schools for National History Day, a co-curricular program for students in grades 6-12. Each year thousands of students visit Wilson Library to get help on their History Day projects. Another partner is College in the Schools (CIS), a program that allows students to take U of M courses at their own high school. This spring, the Libraries hosted more than 300 CIS students, who interacted with primary source materials held in our libraries.
Libraries across the BTAA have committed to managing our separate library collections as a single BIG Collection, a networked approach to collection development, access, and preservation.
Strategic Opportunity: Libraries as Place
A 3.7 million-volume Collections Facility will open in January 2025, allowing the Libraries to preserve and share unique, distinctive, and rare materials while re-envisioning high-demand, on-campus spaces for students, researchers, and instructors. Our vibrant Toaster Innovation Hub in Walter Library and our Makerspace/VR studio in the Health Sciences Library provide exciting and collaborative space designed to spark innovation and help health sciences students better understand the patient experience.
Strategic Opportunity: Integrating Research Services into the Research Lifecycle
The Libraries enrich the research and high-impact learning practices on campus. We have made significant strides in enhancing faculty and student research, and are at the forefront of open science and data sharing. Our participation in the BTAA contract negotiations further incentivizes open sharing of research at UMN. Approximately 66 percent of University research is available as open access.