Hennepin County Library
Encyclopedia
Hennepin County Library is a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
system serving the entire population of Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...
, USA. The Minneapolis Public Library
Minneapolis Public Library
The Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center was a library system serving the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was founded as the publicly traded Minneapolis Athenæum in 1860 and became a free public library in 1885 founded by T. B. Walker...
, a separate system for Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, existed from its founding by T. B. Walker
T. B. Walker
Thomas Barlow Walker was a highly successful American businessperson who acquired timber in Minnesota and California and became an art collector. Walker founded the Minneapolis Public Library. He was among the 10 wealthiest men in the world in 1923. He built two company towns, one of which his son...
in 1885 until January 2008. The system currently has 41 branch 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 Minnetonka
Minnetonka, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and 14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,893.0 persons per square mile . There were 22,228 housing units at an average density of 818.9 per square mile...
. The library system is governed by an eleven-member Library Board appointed by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.
The HCL 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. In the early 1970s plans were in place to merge the Minneapolis Public Library with the HCL, 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
Suburban Hennepin County
City Locations
HCL directors
- Gratia CountrymanGratia CountrymanGratia Alta Countryman was a nationally-known librarian who led the Minneapolis Public Library from 1904 to 1936. She was the daughter of immigrant farmers Alta and Levi Countryman. She pioneered many ways to make the library more accessible and user-friendly to all of the city's residents,...
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-