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ACRL NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Colleges and universities in the Twin Cities and their libraries: Sites to visit during ACRL's National Conference

C&RL News, October 2004
Vol. 65, No. 9

by Tammy Bobrowsky and Julia Kelly

Whether students aspire to be doctors, lawyers, ministers or librarians, there is an academic program to suit their needs in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, the site of the 2005 ACRL National Conference. As one of the largest metropolitan areas in Minnesota (population nearly 3 million), it is home to more than 30 academic institutions.

Each of the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis is home to two law schools; St. Paul has two seminaries; and Minneapolis has two art schools. The University of Minnesota offers degrees in more than 300 fields, and the number and variety of four-year colleges, community and technical schools, seminaries, bible colleges, and smaller universities is impressive for a community of its size.

 

^{Walter Library at the University of Minnesota
is home to the Science and Engineering Library.}

The libraries at these institutions have a long tradition of working together. Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC) is a group of the libraries of eight private colleges and universities in the Twin Cities. They share a catalog and, true to their name, they cooperate in many areas of library service. Minnesota’s statewide cooperative groups include the MINITEX Library Information Network--which links academic, public, state government, and special libraries in Minnesota and the Dakotas--and MNLINK, the statewide virtual library.

Perhaps related to the large number of colleges and universities in the area, the public libraries in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area are very popular and heavily used. The Hennepin County Library, which serves the suburbs of Minneapolis, consistently ranks among the top ten libraries (among those serving populations of more than 500,000) in the country.

The Central Library of the Minneapolis Public Library is currently in temporary quarters about a mile from the Convention Center, while construction progresses on their new building, designed by architect Cesar Pelli. When it opens in the spring of 2006, it will also house a new immigrant center and other community resources.

While in Minneapolis, a few academic libraries will be within walking distance of the conference hotels, including the business and law libraries at the Minneapolis campus of the University of St. Thomas and the newly opened library building at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. One of the preconference tours will visit the new joint-use library at Metropolitan State University (see below) as well as the new Andersen Library/Minnesota Library Access Center at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society Library.

Private colleges
Many of Minnesota’s private colleges are within the city limits of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They range from the Macalester College in St. Paul, whose famous alumni include Kofi Annan, current United Nations Secretary General, and Walter Mondale, former Vice President of the United States, to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The latter is affiliated with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which is the site of the ACRL all-conference reception on Saturday evening of the conference.

The College of St. Catherine is the largest Catholic college for women in the country, enrolling more than 4,700 students. Known locally as “St. Kate’s,” the college has the state’s only on-site MLIS program, which has operated in affiliation with Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, since 1992. St. Kate’s is also home to an inviting and spacious new library complete with a picturesque view of the beautiful campus.

Augsburg College serves more than 3,000 students and is located minutes from downtown Minneapolis. In 1998, Augsburg celebrated the opening of the James G. Lindell Library, providing students and the community with a four-story building combining a traditional library with state-of-the-art technology. Last year’s Nobel prize in Chemistry went to Peter Agre, a 1970 graduate of Augsburg. The University of St. Thomas is the state's largest private University with four libraries on two campuses, and more than 11,000 undergraduate and graduate student

In addition to the Law School at the University of Minnesota, there are three private law schools in the Twin Cities: Hamline University, William Mitchell College of Law, and the University of St. Thomas, each with an excellent law library. The newest school, St. Thomas, puts an emphasis on “integrating faith and reason in the search for truth and justice, through a focus on morality and public service.”

Within about an hour of the Twin Cities are a number of other private colleges, including the St. John’s University in Collegeville, and its unique Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, which contains nearly 90,000 manuscripts on microfilm. St. Olaf College, in Northfield, is home to the choirs that perform the Christmas Festival, which is broadcast throughout the country on public television and public radio each December.

Carleton College, also located in Northfield, is ranked fifth among top liberal arts colleges by the U.S. News and World Report. 

Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter hosts an annual Nobel Conference, featuring recent prize winners and lively scientific discussions.

Public colleges

With three campuses located throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Metropolitan State University enrolls a very diverse population of more than 4,500 students. The St. Paul campus is home to a new state-of-the-art building that combines the library, writing center, and bookstore into the Todd and Martha Nicholson Information Commons.  What makes this building unique to the Twin Cities area is that also houses a branch of the St. Paul Public Library.

Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) is considered one of the most ethnically diverse colleges in the state, enrolling more than 5,300 full-time students. Located in downtown Minneapolis, MCTC is home to a new library facility as well as a new Associate Degree in Information Studies program.  Metropolitan State University will co-locate its Business and Management collection with MCTC’s collection in the spring of 2005.

The University of Minnesota is a land-grant institution and the only research university in the state. The Twin Cities campus, with facilities on the east and west banks of the Mississippi in Minneapolis and in St. Paul, has an enrollment of 49,000 students. The range of programs is diverse, and notable research contributions have come in the areas of new crop development, medical devices, and cures for livestock diseases. The Minneapolis campus is about three miles from the conference hotels, and interesting campus destinations include the Weisman Art Museum (designed by architect Frank Gehry) and the new McNamara Alumni Center.

The libraries at the university are as diverse as its programs, and consist of five major facilities and 11 branch sites. If you are planning a daytime trip to the campus, call ahead for a visit to one of the special collections, including:

· James Ford Bell Collection, documenting European expansion from 1400-1800

· Ames Library of South Asia

· Charles Babbage Institute, covering the history of information technology

·  Givens Collection of African American Literature 

In a large cavern underneath the Elmer L. Andersen Library, the Minnesota Library Access Center serves as a secure storage facility for important but infrequently used items from around Minnesota. Materials are arranged by size, and those taking the preconference library tour will have a chance to see the subterranean stacks.

Walter Library, home of the Science and Engineering Library, is a 1924 building in the Roman Renaissance style, and recent renovation has taken the building back to its original glory. A campus hub of high-tech activity, the library shares the facility with Digital Technology Center and other campus computing groups.

For those who might want to venture outside the city limits, consider the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and its Andersen Horticultural Library, which is about 25 miles from downtown Minneapolis. The Arboretum has more than 1,000 acres of public gardens, and the library is a research collection with one of the largest collections of  seed and nursery catalogs in the country.

About the Authors
Tammy Bobrowsky is acquisitions/serials librarian at Bemidji State University, e-mail: tbobrowksy@bemidjistate.edu, and Julia Kelly is reference/instruction librarian at the University of Minnesota, e-mail: jkelly@tc.umn.edu

© 2004 Tammy Bobrowsky and Julia Kelly