WSU Retention List Stories

The Federal Government of the United States publishes a great deal of information. Historically, the federal government has operated a depository system, whereby it sends out copies of publications to a large group of libraries. Before the Internet, those publications were primarily sent to libraries in a paper format. Technically, the publications are still owned by the federal government, and the libraries are simply making them available to the public. 

Part of the reasoning for sending out many copies of publications to libraries was that a future administration or congress could not restrict information about what previous governments had done, which might be historically relevant. (That is also why federal government publications are not copyrighted.) 

Today, much of the information made public by the federal government is in the form of electronic files which are online. Some libraries download those born-digital files into institutional repositories so that they will not be lost as the government changes. (For example, if an agency goes out of existence, the files on its servers might disappear and be lost to posterity if they were not saved by libraries.) For the last two months, government documents librarians have been busy downloading online information from the outgoing administration and congress to preserve their historical record in preparation for the new presidential administration and congress.

Because the federal government has distributed free copies of government documents to depository libraries, such as Winona State, those documents do not tend to be rare in Minnesota. Here are two government documents that are, nevertheless, on WSU’s retention list. 

National Power Survey: Environmental Research. The Report and Recommendations of the Task Force on Environmental Research to the Technical Advisory Committee on Research and Development. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1974.

Waterborne Commerce of the United States. Part 2. Waterways and harbors, Gulf Coast, Mississippi River and Antilles. U.S. Army Engineer District, 1978.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

Regardless of who won the presidential election yesterday, some of the books on the WSU retention list discuss presidencies past.

Daynes, Byron W. and Glen Sussman. The American Presidency and the Social Agenda. Prentice Hall, 2001.

Bailey, Harry A. and Jay M. Shafritz. The American Presidency: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Dorsey Press, 1988.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

The tragedy on September 11, 2001, rallied the vast majority of Americans to our flag. Most of the books in our library about 9/11 are widely held in Minnesota. One of the books in the Krueger Library about 9/11 which is rare in Minnesota is a text that criticizes its memorialization.

Skotnes, Andor and Jim O’Brien. Historicizing 9/11. Duke University Press, 2011.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

On July 17^th, 2024, we are currently in the middle of the National Republican Convention. This fifty-year-old book on WSU’s retention list shows that the fear of rigged elections is not a new phenomenon. This book was clearly accurate in its predictions, because, only five years later, Ronald Reagan, that notorious dictator of big labor and the radicals, swept into the White House. Just ask a teamster, or an air-traffic controller.

Caddy, Douglas. How They Rig Our Elections: The Coming Dictatorship of Big Labor and the Radicals. Arlington House, 1975.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

Some books initially make you wonder who would ever read them again. On WSU’s retention list is a book, written in German, which offered predictions of the future and which was published in 1970. Of what use today could a 1970 prediction about the future have? One of the chapters discussed the prognosis for East Germany. I can easily imagine an interesting essay comparing what actually happened to what was predicted in 1970.

Waterkamp, Rainer. Futurologie und Zukunftsplanung. Forschungsergebnisse. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1970.

Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.

As one could predict, none of the books written by Nobel-prize winning author John Steinbeck are uncommon enough in Minnesota to be on the Winona State retention list, … but his FBI files are!

Fensch, Thomas. The FBI Files on John Steinbeck. Santa Teresa, NM: New Century Books, 2002.