Minnesota

Minitex and MELSA cooperated with library and publishing leaders around the state to build a 21st Century model of providing robust and sustainable mobile library services that was accessible to every resident in the state.

 
Highlights

eBooks Minnesota made over 12,000 simultaneous-use ebooks from dozens of the world’s top publishers available to Minnesota residents via frictionless geolocation across all browsers and mobile devices. The visionary project began with the intention of supporting local publishers and launched with over 5,000 ebooks from Minnesota publishers alone. This approach to making a direct contribution to improving the local book economy is forward-looking and visionary, and we were very proud to be a part of it. Even as the program expanded to include other publishers, the attention remained on local content.

eBooks MN Schools provided a state-funded ebook collection available for all students and teachers in the state. Several thousand K-12 ebooks worked on all devices and were available via geolocation in a simultaneous use access model. No account was required to use these ebooks as long as you were in the state of Minnesota, which also helped in protecting users’ privacy. This state-supported program provided baseline information and an ebook resource to better support underfunded schools, information deserts, and homeschooled students.

MN Writes | MN Reads provides services and support to all Minnesota public libraries wishing to work with Minnesota indie authors. These programs create local book archives and help the best local authors find more readers in their local community and across the world.

One Book | One Minnesota is a statewide book club that was hosted on eBooks Minnesota featuring high profile books from top Minnesota authors. Featured books were made available to all residents for a statewide community read and authors participated in online discussions and events to engage the community on important topics.

Fun Facts

  • Over the course of the program, there were over 800,000 ebook circulations at an average cost per circ of less than .38 cents.

  • In 2017, eBooks Minnesota undertook a valuable program to archive local indigenous Ojibwe language books for inclusion in statewide school programs.

  • In reaction to the increased need for virtual services after the COVID-19 pandemic, eBooks Minnesota partnered with the Friends of the St. Paul Library and other public libraries across the state to launch two statewide ebook clubs in the summer of 2020. One Book | One Minnesota has had more than 60,000 patrons participate in its summer reading programs.

  • In 2020, MN Writes | MN Reads launched the world’s first library-driven contest for a Community Collection ebook. Submissions included anthologies from classrooms, nonprofits, and other collaborative works being published independently.