The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak approved the final documents to allow the consolidation of the Minneapolis Public Library and the Hennepin County Library systems on Jan. 1, 2008.
The Minneapolis City Council vote on Dec. 21 follows the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners’ unanimous approving the merger on Dec. 18, and the Minneapolis Library Board’s approval on Nov. 14. These recent votes were preceded by months of work involving City and County elected officials and staff, as well as the public, working to create a premier library system for all Hennepin County residents.
The merger paves the way for the reopening of three shuttered Minneapolis libraries — Roosevelt, Southeast and Webber Park. All three will reopen at noon on Thursday, Jan. 3. When library patrons visit the reopened libraries they will see that collections have been reorganized for easier access, additional computers have been installed and new materials have been added.
Merger negotiations began in earnest last February when two separate advisory groups recommended that the City and County pursue consolidation as the best option for ensuring the long term financial stability of Minneapolis libraries. Without action, Minneapolis libraries would likely have faced additional rounds of service cuts.
At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2, community residents are invited to join elected officials in the atrium of the Minneapolis Central Library at 300 Nicollet Mall to toast opening of the expanded library system with hot cocoa.
On Saturday, Jan. 12, three celebrations featuring refreshments and remarks from City and County elected officials will mark the openings. The celebrations are scheduled for:
The merged system will be called the Hennepin County Library System and will include 26 suburban libraries and 15 Minneapolis libraries (this includes the three formerly closed Minneapolis libraries). All individual library names will remain unchanged, and library patrons can continue to use their current library cards. As part of the agreement, the membership of the Hennepin County Library Board was expanded from seven to 11 residents to include greater representation from Minneapolis residents. Initially, three of the four new appointments will be Minneapolis residents. The combined library system will offer more than 5 million books, CDs and DVDs (in 40 languages) and nearly 1,600 public computers to library customers.
Information on the consolidated system is available at all libraries and online at www.hclib.org.
December 21, 2007