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General Information

Minnesota Opportunities for Technical Services Excellence (MOTSE) is a state-wide continuing education program for library technical services.

MOTSE was formed in the fall of 1992 by a group of volunteer technical services librarians who had been introduced to the newly developed Minnesota Opportunities for Reference Excellence (MORE) program and set as their goal the implementation of a similar state-wide training system for cataloging and technical services staff. Since then, MOTSE has developed a variety of workshops on cataloging and general technical services. Hundreds of library staff, including librarians and paraprofessionals from public and academic institutions, have participated in these MOTSE workshops.

The first group of workshops, "Cataloging Basics," includes Description, Access (including authority control), and Subject Analysis (including classification and subject headings). Other workshops focus on Serials, Audiovisual Materials, Music, and Technical Services Operations. All workshops are taught by experienced catalog and technical services professionals.

The Cataloging Basics workshops offer an introduction to cataloging monographs and are intended for the beginning cataloger and other library staff interested in understanding the basic concepts of cataloging. Supported by a LSTA grant, this workshop series was recently redesigned as PowerPoint presentations in order to facilitate accessibility of materials to sponsoring library systems and presenters.

MOTSE is a volunteer organization of catalog and technical services librarians and supports the Minnesota Voluntary Certification Program.