Dakota County Library system is a public library system in Dakota County, Minnesota, headquartered in the Wescott Library in Eagan. [1] [2] The system includes 9, soon to be 10, locations. A New Kaposia Library in South St. Paul will open in 2024.
Dakota County Library system is a public library system in Dakota County, Minnesota, headquartered in the Wescott Library in Eagan. [1] [2] The system includes 9, soon to be 10, locations. A New Kaposia Library in South St. Paul will open in 2024.
Dakota County Library as it exists today is a combination of several smaller libraries. The earliest of these were the Farmington Library, established in 1871 and the Hastings Library, established in 1873. Both were established as subscription libraries, and were relatively short-lived projects, although they paved the way for municipally funded libraries in the early 20th century. The City of South St. Paul Library was established in 1916. It initially received a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation, but development of the library was halted due to the outbreak of World War I. In 1926, the library received municipal bond funding in the amount of $25,000 for the establishment of a library building, which opened in August 1927, as the first public library in Dakota County. [3]
Bolstered by the post-World War II influx to suburban areas as well as the passage of the 1956 Congressional Library Services Act, [3] public libraries in Dakota County were ready to expand. To maximize resources, the County entered into a partnership with its neighbor to the west, Scott County and in 1959, the Dakota-Scott Regional Library System was formed. Originally operated out of 2 classrooms in a Savage elementary school with 9 people on staff, the system quickly expanded, with the Farmington and Hastings libraries joining by the end of the year. By 1968, the system had opened a new library in Hastings, acquired a 6,000 book capacity bookmobile, purchased land off of County Road 42 in Burnsville for a new branch location and was using a storefront location in Burnsville as a temporary library to help alleviate demand on the other outlets. However, throughout this time, Dakota and Scott County had been growing apart from one another - both in terms of population growth and in their vision for the library's future. As a result, the assets of the collection were divided proportionately to county population and by December 31, 1968, the two-county system was dissolved. [3]
Dakota County Library System was formed on January 1, 1969. The early years were a time of cooperation and technological change. The system joined the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) in 1970 [3] and entered into a reciprocal borrowing agreement with the City of South St. Paul Library in 1975. [4] [3]
In 1971, the library made available for check out the first computer-created book catalog in Minnesota. Technological innovations continued with the opening of the Burnhaven library in 1974, which included record and cassette listening terminals. By the beginning of the 1980s, the Dakota County Library System had over 200,000 books and 175,000 patrons, and was entering a period of steady growth. 1981 saw the opening of the Wescott Library in Eagan, which has housed the system's administrative headquarters since its opening. Wescott was followed by the Galaxie Library in Apple Valley in 1990 and the Wentworth Library in West St. Paul in 1992. The Pleasant Hill Library in Hastings was built after a 1993 fire in the previous building caused 1 million USD in damage - including the destruction of an estimated 73,000 books. In 1995, a new "special service library" was opened in Farmington. Inver Glen Library in Inver Grove Heights and the Heritage Library in Lakeville both opened in 2000. [3] The 9th library branch in Rosemount is the Robert Trail Library, which is housed in a 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) facility and had approximately 45,000 volumes in its collection at its opening. [5] After 20+ Years The 10th Library Branch is The Kaposia Library in South St. Paul that is set to open in 2024.
The Dakota County Library is made up of 9 current branch locations, with 1 opening soon. The administrative headquarters are located in Eagan, Minnesota.
Locations include
Law library services are provided at the Apple Valley and Hastings libraries [6]
| In Person Visits | 1,746,785 |
|---|---|
| Virtual Visits to the Library Website and Catalog | 2,405,061 |
| Digital and Physical Items Checked Out | 4,556,015 |
| Active Borrowers | 150,513 |
| Program and Event Attendance | 93,334 |
Dakota County is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the east central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 439,882. The population of Dakota County was estimated to be 443,341 in 2022. The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named for the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who inhabited the area.
Burnsville is a city 15 miles (24 km) south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city is situated on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.7 million residents. At the 2020 census the population was 64,317.
Inver Grove Heights is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 35,801 at the 2020 census. The city was formed on March 9, 1965, with the merger of the village of Inver Grove and Inver Grove Township.
Hastings is a city mostly in Dakota County, Minnesota, of which it is the county seat, with a portion in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. It is near the confluence of the Mississippi, Vermillion, and St. Croix Rivers. The population was 22,154 at the 2020 census. It is named for the first elected governor of Minnesota, Henry Hastings Sibley.
Minnesota State Highway 3 (MN 3) is a 43.749-mile-long (70.407 km) state highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with MN 21 in Faribault and continues north to its northern terminus at an intersection with MN 5 in downtown Saint Paul. Until the resigning of a previously unsigned highway in 2019, the route's northern terminus was an interchange with MN 62 in Inver Grove Heights.
Area code 651 is the telephone numbering plan code for Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the eastern suburbs of the Twin Cities. A dogleg portion also extends to the southeast along the Mississippi River to include cities such as Hastings. The region was the fifth area code created in the state in 1998, when it was carved out of area code 612.
County State-Aid Highway 42 (CSAH 42), usually called County Road 42 (CR 42), is a 33.347-mile-long (53.667 km) county highway in Dakota and Scott counties in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is a primary arterial highway in the two counties. These two counties form the southernmost portion of the 13-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, although CSAH 42 travels across the northern reaches of the two counties.
Eagan High School (EHS) is a public high school in east-central Eagan, Minnesota, United States. The school opened in fall 1989 for ninth-grade students and for grades ten through twelve the following year. It is particularly noted for its fine arts programs and use of technology. As of the 2021-2022 school year, EHS had 2,111 students.
Independent School District 196 is a K-12 public school district located in the south suburban Twin Cities, near both Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota.
The Lake Conference a high school athletic conference with seven member high schools in the western and southwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Minnesota State High School League.
Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) is a public, two-year technical college in Rosemount, Minnesota, United States. It is located in Dakota County inside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. DCTC belongs to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and is one of five stand-alone technical colleges in the state.
Eagan is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota. It is south of Saint Paul and lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and the other nearby suburbs form the southern section of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. Eagan's population was 68,855 at the 2020 census. The city was home to the headquarters of Northwest Airlines.
The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, also known by the acronym MVTA, is a public transportation agency that serves seven communities in the southern portion of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The agency provides fixed-route and demand-responsive transit within the service area of the communities and to select destinations in the region.
Minnesota Hockey is the statewide governing body of amateur hockey in Minnesota and an affiliate of USA Hockey. Since 1947, Minnesota Hockey has been providing volunteer services for the development and promotion of all youth hockey in Minnesota. Robert Ridder was the founding president of the MAHA, and affiliated the state group with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States.
The Apple Valley Transit Station is a transit facility located in Apple Valley, Minnesota. It is owned by the City of Apple Valley and the MVTA. The transit station is near Cedar Avenue and Gaslight Drive. This station has 337 parking spaces and is almost full almost each weekday. It also serves the nearby communities of Lakeville and Farmington.
The Eagan Transit Station is a transit facility located in Eagan, Minnesota. Riders also hail from the nearby communities of Mendota Heights and Northern Rosemount. The Park & Ride lot has 750 parking spaces for bus passengers and retail employees.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Dakota County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. Dakota County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, bounded on the northeast side by the Upper Mississippi River and on the northwest by the Minnesota River. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
St. Johns County Public Library System serves the surrounding areas of St. Johns County, Florida, including St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fruit Cove, and Hastings. The library system has six branches, two bookmobiles, and offers books-by-mail service. In addition to books, periodicals, and online databases, SJCPLS offers computer access, notary services, Inter-Library Loan service, access to a Seed Library, test proctoring, and many volunteer opportunities. The library system also offers a dynamic range of programming for adults, teens, and children.
The Dakota County Tribune is an American, English language weekly newspaper headquartered in Apple Valley, Minnesota, which serves the Apple Valley, Farmington and Rosemount communities in Dakota County. It was founded in 1884.
