by Maggie Snow
Quick Summary
Jolie Graybill has departed Minitex to become Dean of Libraries at North Dakota State University. Minitex thanks her for her leadership of the Digital Initiatives & Metadata Education unit and wishes her well as she embarks on this new endeavor.
Jolie Graybill led Minitex's Digital Initiatives & Metadata Education (DIME) unit for eight years, including management of the Minnesota Digital Library. Her tenure, which ended May 31, was marked by achievements on behalf of her unit as well as Minitex as a whole. On Jolie's watch, MDL's collection of primary source materials grew beyond 50,000 items, and was rebranded from Minnesota Reflections to the Minnesota Digital Library. The Scan for Keeps program, whereby Minitex loans out digitization kits for community scanning events, also got its start under Jolie's guidance. Jolie even put MDL on TV with ads on Fox9 and TPT.
DIME staff member Stephanie Hess echoed the thoughts of many of her Minitex colleagues when she noted being appreciative of Jolie's "dedication to the Minnesota Digital Library and how she came up with so many great ideas for improving MDL."
Jolie lent her talents to Minitex by serving on the Leadership Team and by heading up the Events Group and the Professional Development Group, to name a few. Sara Ring recalled that Jolie's first year at Minitex was also the year Minitex revived its softball team. "Jolie didn't play, but she was a devoted fan and came to almost every game to support us. Once she even baked a cake for the team to celebrate wrapping up its season!"
Minitex will miss Jolie's restaurant recommendations, luncheon planning skills, and enthusiasm. Best wishes, Jolie!
