News from 2025
The Tradition of a Holiday Edition
A gallery of holiday covers from the Minnesota Daily student newspaper.
Here’s the best books we read in 2025
The books we read can say a lot about us. The ones we enjoy, the ones we dislike, and especially the ones we recommend. So as 2025 shrinks in the rearview mirror, get to know the University of Minnesota Libraries through the books we read this year.
The first ever game jam at the Toaster
Tinker @ the Toaster welcomed participants with a fun new challenge
A variety of students from majors all across the University of Minnesota met for three nights straight for the Toaster’s first ever game jam, a departure from the classic Tinker event that the Toaster hosted for years.
College is stressful. Here’s how the Libraries can help
An overview of mental health services, events, stress relieving programs, and wellness spaces at the Libraries.
Health Sciences librarians make their professional conference a hoot
A retrospective of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association's conference, hosted at the University of Minnesota.
Spitballing at MPR: Voices for Impact
The Toaster hosts an abundance of entrepreneurial events every year. Usually focused in the business or STEM worlds, however on Oct. 21, MPR came to the Toaster.
Are You Ready for Some FOOT BALL?
To coincide with the 1899-1900 football season, editors of Ariel, the weekly student newspaper, announced the creation of a supplementary daily bulletin titled FOOT BALL, the purpose of which was “to create enthusiasm in football, to get everybody thinking and talking about it, and so to aid in bringing success to our team” (Ariel, October 14, 1899, page 60). Twenty-six (26) issues of FOOT BALL were published from October 17 – November 24, 1899.
Resistance Against Japanese American Incarceration Camps
A research report of IHRCA materials relating to the activism of White Americans who supported the civil rights of Japanese Americans in the incarceration camps.
‘Take this Daily home. Send it to a serviceman’
“Take this Daily home. Send it to a serviceman,” read the recurring appeal from the staff of the student newspaper in the fall of 1943, accompanying a special edition dedicated to the army and navy servicemen training at the University of Minnesota during World War II.
Anatomy resources at the Health Sciences Libraries expand student learning opportunities
An overview of anatomy resources at the Health Sciences Library, including models, VR, online learning tools, and primary sources.
Sherlock Holmes Curator Tim Johnson retires after 27 years at the Libraries
Johnson officially retired in October 2025 after 27 years as the Curator of Special Collections and Rare Books and 15 years as the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections.
A Shakespearean recipe for Witch’s Brew
It’s almost Halloween, our favorite holiday in the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine (WHL), so we’re busy thinking about all the spooky things in our collections. Since much of our material focuses on the histories of pharmacy (making medicines) and nutrition (making food), many of these books are full of recipes.
Archives are for everyone
On Mon., Sept. 29, the University Libraries hosted members of the Minnesota Public Health Association (MPHA) and other guests at Andersen Library for a Taste of Public Health Archives in Minnesota, along with a tour of its subterranean caverns that house 93,000 cubic feet of archival material.
The Spirit of the Daily Homecoming Editions
In the October 2, 1914 issue of The Minnesota Daily, it was announced that the All-University Council had adopted a resolution declaring November 14, 1914, as the “home-coming day for Minnesota alumni.” From that point forward, Homecoming evolved into an annual campus tradition.
The Daily Reveals the Doors
The University of Minnesota Archives 3-D collection contains 3 small pieces of wood, 2 with hinges, 2 with tags. Each item is numbered in black paint, 1800, 519, and 540, respectively.
On the back of item 1800 is an address label with the name “C.D. Bedford.” Item 519 has a tag attached with the name “H.C. MacKall.” Handwritten on the back is the date “9/26/04,” and the notations, “H.C. MacKall P.O. Box, for 3 years,” and “Taken from the ‘Old Main’ after the fire of Sept. 24, 1904.”
Beyond the Books: How UMN Libraries elevates student learning with its unique spaces
By definition, the word “library” denotes the presence of books, and there’s no shortage of them across the University of Minnesota Libraries.
But UMN Libraries, a system of 10 libraries throughout the Twin Cities Campus, offers far more than books — and among their most unique offerings are their innovative spaces: the Toaster, Makerspaces, and Virtual Reality Studio.
The Toaster helps incoming design students grow their opportunities
The school year starts again and freshmen work to find their footing on campus. Throughout welcome week they have had the opportunity to adjust to the fast-paced college life that awaits them.
The Toaster saw a variety of groups come through its doors during this hectic week. Due to the makerspace, study room, sewing machines, VR sets and more, the Toaster is a great place to frequent once school projects start popping up on Canvas.
‘Welcome’ to the Year of the Daily
University of Minnesota Archives’ exhibit, "Beyond The Page: Preserving the Spirit of the University Through An Independent Student Press" will be open from October 13, 2025 through January 30, 2026. During the academic year, supplementary blog posts featuring The Minnesota Daily and ways in which they went “beyond the page,” will be posted to celebrate its 125th anniversary. Stay tuned for more!
Salt and Memory
My end-of-summer reading included “Time Shelter” by Georgi Gospodinov, a future dystopia about memory and the past, which deservedly won the International Booker Prize in 2023. While Gospodinov is most interested in the more recent past and its political reverberations today, every once in a while he dips into the deep past.
Mapping Prejudice joins community street-renaming effort
Earlier this month Mapping Prejudice joined over a hundred community members who packed a Minneapolis Planning Commission hearing, which was considering a proposal to rename Edmund Boulevard. The team was there to support a 5-year community campaign to strip the street of a name tied to racial covenants.
The commission unanimously approved the proposal, which will re-christen the street Lena Smith Boulevard. This honors Minnesota’s first Black woman attorney and housing rights activist, Lena Olive Smith.