Minneapolis Public Library

The Minneapolis Public Library ( Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center; short MPL) was a public library network for the city of Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Since 1 January 2008, it is part of the Hennepin County Library.

The Minneapolis Public Library was founded in 1860 as Minneapolis Athenæum. In their merger with the County Library adjacent to the main building (Central Library) in downtown were fourteen other branch libraries for MPL. The available book on hand amounted to around 3.1 million copies. The library used in contrast to most other public libraries, the Library of Congress Classification.

After the revenue of the libraries fell and also the state of Minnesota was heading less financial support, the Minnesota Public Library came at the beginning of the 21st century is increasingly in financial distress. Thus, the opening times have been greatly reduced and scaled back the investment. 2007 was approved by the city and Countyverwaltung and later the parliament of the state of a merger with Hennepin County Library.

Central Library

The main building, the Central Library, was rebuilt in the city center in place of an old and disused building after a referendum in 2000. The citizens of Minneapolis had spoken out for the estimated 140 million euro construction. From 7th November 2000, the construction work, the designed by Argentine architect César Pelli building began. The glass building falls on mainly by projecting from the facade, white roof construction and extending both main entrances covered across the entire library. The new emphasis is now on a high energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. During the works had to avoid large sections of the library to the branch at Marquette Plaza, which caused additional costs in the amount of ten million U.S. dollars. On 20 May 2006, the new Central Library was opened. It contains over three million media, including some 2.2 million books, one of the largest collections of books and electronic media of the United States.

The Planetarium of Minneapolis, which had to make way for the new library with the closure of the old building, will be housed in the fifth and sixth floor and on the roof of the library. In 2005 it pledged funding for the project that by 2009, for a total of $ 40 million, a 3,450 -square-foot planetarium to be built.