The Library Section catalogs and processes print and sound and visual resources including monographs, serials, newspapers, Web sites, journal articles, government documents, maps, atlases, sheet music, oral histories, sound and moving image recordings, photographs and art work. We create approximately 95% original cataloging, and manage the serials and newspapers through their own check-in systems.
Photos, artwork, and posters are cataloged and managed through the Society's Visual Resources Database. MARC records are created for all of the other formats.
The Archival Section processes and catalogs a wide variety of manuscripts collections and the records of Minnesota state, local, and regional government agencies that comprise the State Archives. Its staff analyzes, organizes, and houses these materials, participates in their appraisal, and writes descriptive inventories and other finding aids.
MARC records are created for all manuscripts collections and government records series, and are available via the library catalog and the Research Libraries Group's RLIN database. More detailed inventories and descriptions are produced for all but the smallest groups of materials, and many of these are also presented online as Encoded Archival Description (EAD) documents linked from the MARC records. The Section also catalogs Minnesota government records that are publicly available in other repositories throughout the state.
The Archival Cataloging portion of this manual is under construction.