Hennepin County Library



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. 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.

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

 * Gratia Countryman, 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