by Maggie Snow
Quick Summary
After nearly three decades of service to libraries across the region, Minitex is officially retiring its Contract Cataloging Program. The long-standing service assisted libraries in expanding access to unique resources by providing useful, timely, and cost-effective cataloging.
The Minitex Contract Cataloging Program was born in 1996 as a joint venture of the Minnesota State Library and Minitex to provide a temporary, part-time cataloger to the Minnesota Trade Office International Library. Demand for supplementary cataloging services grew, and the program soon expanded to 2 full-time catalogers and several part-time catalogers. In 1998, the Capital Area Library Consortium (CALCO) received a LSTA grant for a pilot project to start their backlog cataloging and chose Minitex as the cataloging agency for this grant. Minitex cataloged 1,313 original items and 823 copy items for the CALCO libraries project.
Over the next 20+ years, Minitex Contract Cataloging staff worked with many other libraries on hundreds of projects. One notable project was the contract cataloging work for the Sherlock Holmes Collections housed within the University of Minnesota Archives and Special Collections. This collection constitutes the worldā€™s largest gathering of material related to Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Included in the collection are Doyle's novels and short stories, biographical works, and more. The collection also contains parodies and imitations featuring characters such as Schlock Combs, Turlock Loams, and The Great Mouse Detective. At the start of the project, it was estimated that the collection contained 15,160 print items. Staff cataloged a wide variety of very interesting materials, such as a collection of calling cards left at 221B Baker Street, Mrs. Hudsonā€™s cookbooks, and the manual for the typewriter machine on which Dr. Watson recorded the Later Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
There was a wonderful series of articles written about the project in the Minitex/OCLC Mailing publication. You can read all 3 articles by following the links:
Thereā€™s No Place like Holmes - Part 1, (Feb. 2003)
Thereā€™s No Place Like Holmes - Part 2 (March 2003)
Thereā€™s No Place Like Holmes - Part 3 (April 2003)
While the landscape of library services continues to evolve, Minitex remains committed to supporting libraries in new and innovative ways, building on the legacy of collaboration and excellence that defined the Contract Cataloging Program.
For more information on Minitex digital initiatives and metadata education, please contact Sara Ring, Continuing Education Librarian.
