Quick Summary
On Friday, August 1, following 11 years of service to libraries, Zach Miller will depart Minitex. We wish him the best of luck as he begins his new position as Assistant Director for Outreach & Communications at the Minnesota State Energy Center of Excellence.
How has Minitex changed since you started?
Way back in ancient history (2014), Minitex was a much different place. Wonderful colleagues like Valerie Horton, Mary Parker, Becky Ringwelski, Carol Nelson, Carla Urban, Cecelia Boone, and many others, were making Minitex awesome. We were located in Andersen Library. For a few years there, we had a softball team. We were no good, and it was wonderful! We had multitudes of listservs, blogs, email lists, and other communications vehicles. Gradually, we consolidated them into the more streamlined channels we use today. I hope I’m leaving Minitex’s communications enterprise better than I found it. And I know it will only continue to get better after my last day on the job. That’s because Jesus Maldonado Sanchez is totally great, and he’s backed up by a Minitex staff that is incredibly talented, from top to bottom.
What has been most rewarding during your time as director of communications?
This is such an easy question. The people! I’m tempted to start shouting out individuals, but by the time I’m done I will have included the entire staff and this article would be way too long. The Minitex website is really well done, and it includes a Staff Directory. Click on over to it and you’ll see everybody. Please feel free to choose a Minitexian (yes, that's what we're called) you work with, and tell them how awesome they are!
It’s not just the Minitexians who are awesome, though. Being the Head of Communications at Minitex meant that I got to go to events and travel around visiting cool libraries and meeting the (even cooler) library workers who run them. Each and every library is the same! Each and every library is unique! Whether it’s in Marshall, Minnesota or the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, the library and its staff are in tune with their community, and serving its needs. It’s a beautiful thing to see. And it was my privilege to spend 11 years trying to support those libraries and tell their stories.
What is your library hot take?
Generative artificial intelligence is here, and its effects will only continue to grow. Yikes? Yay? Either way, libraries are… HERE TO STAY! You all know it, and I do, too. Libraries aren’t just book repositories. They’re places that welcome every person from every walk of life, and they offer information, entertainment, community, and so much more. Like no other institution in America, our libraries are bridges to well-being, and to the wider world. And as the path to well-being shifts and the world changes, libraries will too. Libraries will look a lot different in 50 years, but they’ll still be going strong, as the linchpins of the urban neighborhoods and small towns they call home.
