oct04b.indd ACRL NATIONAL CONFERENCE Colleges and universities in the Twin cities and their libraries Sites to visit during ACRL’s National Conference by Tammy Bobrowsky and Julie 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 in­ stitutions. Each of the Twin Cities 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 of four­year colleges, community and tech­ nical schools, seminaries, bible colleges, and smaller universities is impressive for a community of its size. The libraries at these institutions have a long tradition of working together. Co­ operating 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 Da­ kotas—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 Con­ About the authors Tammy Bobrowsky is acquisitions/serials librarian at Bemidji State University, e-mail: tbobrowksy@bemidjistate.edu, and Julie Kelly is reference/instruction librarian at the University of Minnesota, e-mail: jkelly@tc.umn.edu © 2004 Tammy Bobrowsky and Julia Kelly 514 / C&RL News October 2004 mailto:jkelly@tc.umn.edu mailto:tbobrowksy@bemidjistate.edu vention Center minican Univer­ while construc­ sity in River For­ t i o n p r o g r e s s ­ est, Illinois, since es on the new 1992. St. Kate’s is building, which also home to an w a s d e s i g n e d inviting and spa­ by architect Ce­ cious new library, sar Pelli. When complete with a it opens in the picturesque view spring of 2006, it of the beautiful will also house campus. a new immigrant A u g s b u r g center and other College serves c o m m u n i t y r e ­ more than 3,000 sources. students and is Walter Library at the University of Minnesota is home to the Science and Engineering Library. While in Minneapolis, a few academic libraries will be within walking distance of the conference hotels, including the busi­ ness and law libraries at the Minneapolis campus of the University of St. Thomas and the newly opened library building at the Minneapolis Community and Techni­ cal College. One of the pre­conference tours will visit the new joint­use library at Metropoli­ tan 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. There’s 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—and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The latter is affiliated with the Minneapo­ lis Institute of Arts, which is the site of the ACRL All­Conference Reception. The College of St. Catherine is the larg­ est Catholic college for women in the coun­ try, enrolling more than 4,700 students. Known locally as “St. Kate’s,” the college has the state’s only on­site MLIS program, which has operated in affiliation with Do­ located minutes from downtown Minne­ apolis. In 1998, Augsburg celebrated the opening of the James G. Lindell Library, providing students and the community with a four­story building combining a traditional library with state­of­the­art 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 students. In addition to the Law School at the Uni­ versity 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 col­ leges, including St. John’s University in Collegeville, and its unique Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, which contains nearly 90,000 manuscripts on microfi lm. 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. C&RL News October 2004 / 515 Carleton College, also located in North­ field, is ranked fifth among top liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Pe­ ter hosts an annual Nobel Conference, featuring recent prize winners and lively scientifi c discussions. Public colleges With three campuses located throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Metropoli­ tan State University enrolls a very diverse population of more than 4,500 students. The St. Paul campus is home to a new state­of­the­art building that combines the library, writing center, and bookstore into the Todd and Martha Nicholson Informa­ tion Commons. What makes this building unique to the Twin Cities area is that it also houses a branch of the St. Paul Public Library. Minneapolis Community and Techni­ cal College (MCTC) is considered one of the most ethnically diverse colleges in the state, enrolling more than 5,300 full­time students. Located in downtown Minneapo­ lis, MCTC is home to a new library facil­ ity, as well as a new Associate Degree in Information Studies program. Metropolitan State University will col­ locate its Business and Management collec­ tion with MCTC’s collection in the spring of 2005. The University of Minnesota is a land­ grant institution and the only research uni­ versity 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 Links to Web sites available online Make sure to visit the online version of this article for links to the Web sites of the institutions listed here (www.ala.org /acrl, select “C&RL News” from the Quicklinks dropdown menu). 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 archi­ tect Frank Gehry) and the new McNamara Alumni Center. The libraries at the university are as diverse as its programs, and consist of fi ve 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, document­ ing 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 pre­ conference 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 Uni­ versity 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.  516 / C&RL News October 2004 http:www.ala.org