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Hennepin County Library

Public library in Minnesota

Field	Value
library_name	Hennepin County Library
image	Minneapolis Central Library and night skyline.jpg
image_size	300px
location	Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States
established	1885
num_branches	41 (list)
website

The first central Minneapolis Public Library, early 1900s

Ridgedale Library, the location of the Hennepin County Library headquarters

Hennepin County Library is a public library system serving Hennepin County, Minnesota, US. The current iteration of Hennepin County Library was formed by the merger of urban Minneapolis Public Library and suburban Hennepin County Library on January 1, 2008. The system has 41 library locations, deposit collections at nursing homes and correctional facilities, mail service to the homebound, and extensive outreach services. With more than 4 million items in its collection, the Hennepin County Library system is one of the largest public libraries in the United States. The library is a department of Hennepin County Government. The library headquarters are in the Ridgedale Library in suburban Minnetonka. The library system has an eleven-member advisory Library Board appointed by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. It is a member of the Metropolitan Library Service Agency, a consortium of eight Twin Cities library systems.

History

Minneapolis Public Library was founded in 1885 with the establishment of the Minneapolis Public Library Board by an amendment of the Minneapolis city charter. Minneapolis Public Library's first building was the Main Library, opened in 1889. Minneapolis Public Library later added community library branches to supplement the main library. The first branch was North Branch, established in 1890, more branches in south and east Minneapolis followed, and the system grew with the city.

Hennepin County Library started in 1922 as a horse-drawn "bookmobile" to areas outside the core city of Minneapolis. The system saw a large increase in use in the period between 1950 and 1980 as more people moved into suburban areas of the county. By 1952 there were 24 libraries in the system; additional city libraries, such as Hopkins, were incorporated into the county system. Hennepin County Library opened its first area library, Southdale, in 1973. In the early 1970s plans were in place to merge the Minneapolis Public Library with the Hennepin County Library. However, the Minneapolis library system reconsidered, and merger plans were put on hold. Ultimately, the two library systems reached an agreement, and the merger was finalized on January 1, 2008, under the name of Hennepin County Library.

Branches

Main article: List of Hennepin County Library branches

Minneapolis

Arvonne Fraser Library
East Lake Library
Franklin Library
Hosmer Library
Linden Hills Library
Minneapolis Central Library
Nokomis Library
North Regional Library
Northeast Library
Pierre Bottineau Library
Roosevelt Library
Sumner Library
Walker Library
Washburn Library
Webber Park Library

Suburban Hennepin County

Augsburg Park Library (Richfield)
Brookdale Library (Brooklyn Center)
Brooklyn Park Library
Champlin Library
Eden Prairie Library
Edina Library
Excelsior Library
Golden Valley Library
Hopkins Library
Long Lake Library
Maple Grove Library
Maple Plain Library
Minnetonka Library
Osseo Library
Oxboro Library (Bloomington)
Penn Lake Library (Bloomington)
Plymouth Library
Ridgedale Library (Minnetonka)
Rockford Road Library (Crystal)
Rogers Library
Southdale Library (Edina)
St. Anthony Library
St. Bonifacius Library
St. Louis Park Library
Wayzata Library
Westonka Library (Mound)

City locations

Bloomington (2)
Brooklyn Center
Brooklyn Park
Champlin
Crystal
Eden Prairie
Edina (2)
Excelsior
Golden Valley
Hopkins
Long Lake
Maple Grove
Maple Plain
Minneapolis (15)
Minnetonka (2)
Mound
Osseo
Plymouth
Richfield
Rogers
St. Anthony
St. Bonifacius
St. Louis Park
Wayzata

Bookmobile

The Hennepin County Free Library started operating a bookmobile (then called a book wagon) in 1922.

Library directors

Pauline Field, 1922–1925
Ethel Berry, 1925–1947
Helen Young, 1947–1969
Robert H. Rohlf, 1969–1994
Charles M. Brown, 1994–2004
Amy Ryan, 2005–2008
Lois Langer Thompson, 2009–2018
Janet Mills (interim), 2018–2020
Chad Helton, August 24, 2020 – February 25, 2022
Dan Rogan (Interim), February 25, 2022 – October 9, 2023
Scott Duimstra, October 9, 2023 – present

References

Knudsen, Cory. (2023-04-06). "Hennepin County Library comeback plan".
"About Hennepin County Library". Hennepin County Library.
"Hennepin County Library Board".
Benidt, Bruce Weir. (1984). "The Library Book: Centennial History of the Minneapolis Public Library". Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center.
"History of Hennepin County Library".
"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080117162953/http://www.hclib.org/merger/ Library Merger Updates]." Hennepin County Library. Retrieved on October 4, 2010. "[...]allowing the merger to take place Jan. 1, 2008."
"Page 1".
Furst, R. (2022, February 25). Hennepin County Library Director Chad Helton resigns. ''StarTribune''. [https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-library-director-chad-helton-resigns/600150680/ https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-library-director-chad-helton-resigns/600150680/]
McKinney, M. (2023, August 23). Hennepin County's new library director is eager to expand library's impact — and live in Twin Cities. ''StarTribune''. [https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-new-library-director-scott-duimstra-residency-live-in-the-twin-cities/600299214/]

Info: Wikipedia Source

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