Biographical Database Covering All Minnesota Legislators
Staff members at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library are pleased to announce the public availability of a biographical database covering all Minnesota legislators back to territorial times, Legislators Past & Present (http://www.leg.mn/legdb). While a handful of states have lists of legislators available electronically, we believe this resource is unique in the nation.
For more details on the database, see an article published in the St.
Paul Legal Ledger, scanned with permission and available at:
http://www.leg.mn/webcontent/lrl/pdf/legdb.pdf
Records have been added for more than 5000 legislators, with added information about each term served by legislators for the most recent 45 years. The database is still a work in progress; we have only scratched the surface of the resources we could use to augment the records, and we plan to improve the searching options.
As it develops, the database will feature a rich collection of audiovisual and print materials about legislators. For example, the Star Tribune has granted us permission to scan copies of obituaries we have in our print files, and links to video interviews done by the House of Representatives Media Department are included for many recent House members.