Minneapolis Public Library
The Minneapolis Public Library ( Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center ; MPL for short) was a public library network for the city of Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota . Since January 1, 2008 it has been part of the Hennepin County Library .
The Minneapolis Public Library was founded in 1860 as the Minneapolis Athenæum . When they merged with the County Library, fourteen other branch libraries belonged to the MPL in addition to the main building (Central Library) in the city center. The available book inventory was around 3.1 million copies. The library, unlike most other public libraries, used the Library of Congress Classification .
After the libraries' revenues declined and the state of Minnesota also received less financial support, the Minnesota Public Library got increasingly into financial distress at the beginning of the 21st century. The opening times have been shortened considerably and investments have also been reduced. In 2007, the city and county government and later the state parliament approved a merger with the Hennepin County Library.
Central Library
The main building, the Central Library, was rebuilt after a referendum in 2000 in the city center in place of an old and no longer used building. The citizens of Minneapolis had spoken out in favor of the building, which is estimated at 140 million euros. On November 7, 2000, construction work began on the building designed by the Argentine architect César Pelli . The glass building is particularly noticeable due to the white roof construction protruding from the facade, which covers both main entrances and extends across the entire library. In the new building, particular attention was paid to high energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. During the renovation work, large parts of the library had to move to the branch at Marquette Plaza, which resulted in additional costs of ten million US dollars. On May 20, 2006 the new Central Library was opened. With over three million media, including around 2.2 million books, it is home to one of the largest collections of books and electronic media in the United States.
The Minneapolis planetarium , which had to make way for the new library building when the old building was closed, is to be housed on the fifth and sixth floors and on the roof of the library. In 2005, funds were approved for the project, according to which a 3,450 square meter planetarium is to be built by 2009 for a total of over 40 million USD.
