Hello! My name is Katie Otto. I am a new staff member in Resource Sharing at Minitex. I started my position in January of this year.
I oversee the day-to-day resource sharing operations at Wilson Library on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. My job requires me to maintain a working knowledge of the various collections in Wilson, particularly the vast Government Publications collection. The University is a Federal Depository Library, meaning it obtains any federal document the US government deems a depository item. In addition, Wilson Government Publications collects documents from Canada, the European Union, the United Nations, and, of course, Minnesota. The large volume of government publications acquired each year requires some specialized knowledge of how to find documents, especially for the older items that have not been cataloged.
I also handle requests for items from the Gale Family Library at the Minnesota Historical Society, many of which are genealogical in nature. This includes locating obituaries, family books, birth, death, naturalization, and census records. Some requests require on-site research where a variety of genealogical resources exist online, on microfilm, or in the print/archive collection.
I’ve been learning a lot about government publications, the Minnesota Historical Society collection, genealogical resources, as well as the libraries, systems, and collections within the Minitex consortia. I’m excited to be in this position and am happy to help with any of your resource sharing needs.
