Southdale Library is an American public library. It is located in Edina, Minnesota, United States. At 60,000 square feet, it is one of the largest in the Hennepin County Library system. The building is part of a complex that also houses district courts. [1] The library offers materials in English, Chinese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. [2]
When the library opened in November 1973, it was the third largest public library in Minnesota with a 200,000 volume collection. [3] Southdale opened with audio-visual materials and equipment including computers, televisions, recorders, projectors, videotape equipment, and the ability to connect to six-channel copper loops to listen to audio materials via headphones. [4]
The library was initially among the libraries funded by Hennepin County after the State Legislature authorized the county’s long-range building program in 1969. This legislation created a 15-year program including $20 million, some of which helped fund the library. [5] The library served as the headquarters of Hennepin County Library until the Ridgedale Library was built in 1982.
Renovations were completed in several phases. The first phase was the expansion of their parking lot from September to November 1992. [6] The next phase included expanding the interior for additional square footage to the library and upgrade to the building. [7] The final phase was completed on January 1 to March 13, 1994. [8]
A new Southdale Library is in the planning stages. The new building will be shared with the Edina Art Center and is planned to open in Summer 2027. [9]
Untitled by Christopher Tully [10] is the one prominent piece of art featured in the Southdale Library children's area. "Untitled" is an installation of several animal sculptures including fish, birds and hippopotami. Christopher Tully’s sculptures are displayed throughout the children's area. Tully is a Minnesota artist who creates large scale sculptures and installation pieces of whimsical animal characters and nature scenes.
Hennepin County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. The county's natural areas are covered with extensive woods, hills, and lakes.
The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) was a library system that served the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was founded in 1885 with the establishment of the Minneapolis Library Board by an amendment to the Minneapolis City Charter. Lumber baron and philanthropist T. B. Walker and other city leaders such as Thomas Lowry were members of the first library board. In 2008, after some financial difficulties, the library was merged into the Hennepin County Library system. At the time of its merger, the library included Central Library in downtown Minneapolis and fourteen branch libraries. Its collection numbered about 3.1 million items with about 2.2 million of these housed in the central library.
Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is both the first and the oldest fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has 1,297,608 square feet of leasable retail space, and contains 106 retail tenants. The mall is owned by Simon Property Group and the anchor stores are Macy's, Dave & Buster's, AMC Theatres, Hennepin Service Center, and Life Time Athletic.
The Hennepin County Law Library is a law library located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 1883.
Ridgedale Center, colloquially known as Ridgedale, is an enclosed shopping mall in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a western suburb of the Twin Cities. It is directly located off I-394/US 12 between Ridgedale Drive and Plymouth Road. Ridgedale Center comprises 1,105,337 square feet (100,000 m2) of leaseable retail space, and contains approximately 140 retail tenants. It is currently jointly owned by Brookfield Properties and CBRE Group, and managed by Brookfield. The anchor stores are JCPenney, Nordstrom, Macy's, and Dick's House of Sport.
Hennepin County Library is a public library system serving Hennepin County, Minnesota, US. The current iteration of Hennepin County Library was formed by the merger of urban Minneapolis Public Library and suburban Hennepin County Library on January 1, 2008. The system has 41 library 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 suburban Minnetonka. The library system has an eleven-member advisory Library Board appointed by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. It is a member of the Metropolitan Library Service Agency, a consortium of eight Twin Cities library systems.
Nokomis Library, formerly Nokomis Community Library, is a branch library serving the Nokomis East area of Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of 41 libraries in the Hennepin County Library system, Nokomis was designed by Buetow and Associates, Inc and opened in 1968 as a replacement for the nearby Longfellow Community Library. After being deemed crowded and outdated in 1999, the library underwent a renovation beginning in 2009 that saw it gain a number of environmentally friendly features and an expansion of 4,300 square feet (399 m2). The building reopened in 2011 and includes a restored Wind and Water Chime, a stabile that was part of the original library and that was refurbished and reinstalled by July 2013. The library contains over 35 computers, a public meeting room, and a Spanish-language collection of materials.
Sumner Library is a neighborhood library located in the Near-north neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Originally part of the Minneapolis Public Library, it became part of the merged Hennepin County Library in 2008. The Carnegie Library was a haven for Jewish immigrants to the city in the early 20th century. The Minneapolis Public Library moved its entire collection of Yiddish and Hebrew works to the branch library in response to a survey showing that 95% of the patrons were Jewish immigrants, some of whom learned English there and participated in social clubs in the building. The Tudor Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Eden Prairie Library is located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is one of 41 libraries of the Hennepin County Library system. The 40,000 square foot building houses a collection of 150,000 items, an automated materials handling system (AMH) for check in and rough sortation of materials, 82 public computers, two meeting rooms, a reading lounge with fireplace, a teen area, a children's area with a Family Reading Lounge, and several installations of artwork. At the time of its opening in 2004, the Eden Prairie Library was the first public building in Minnesota to incorporate a hydrogen fuel cell to produce electricity.
France Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Edina, and Bloomington, with shorter segments in several other suburbs in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area.
Northeast Library is a public library in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Hennepin County Library system. Since opening in 1973, Northeast Library at 2200 Central Avenue Northeast in Minneapolis serves a vibrant metropolitan community, Northeast, Minneapolis. At 15,275 square feet, the space held about 30,000 books and featured a fireplace to welcome patrons in winter. The 1973 building was itself a replacement for a Carnegie library which was on the site from 1915 until 1972.
Library service to the Hopkins, Minnesota community was established more than 100 years ago, when the library was housed in City Hall. The library moved to the historic Dow House in 1948 and then temporarily to a vacant restaurant in 1963. The library opened in its current location in 1968 and was renovated in 2002. The library joined Hennepin County Library in 1973.
Augsburg Park Library is a public library in Richfield, Minnesota. A Richfield branch library of Hennepin County Library has existed in various buildings in since 1951.
Brookdale Library is a branch of Hennepin County Library serving the community of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, United States. The library opened in its current location, 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway, in 1981. As the first structure in Hennepin County to be built in compliance with Minnesota's Sustainable Design Guide, it is one of three Hennepin County structures with a library, county courthouse, licensing and records services office, and social service and community corrections offices. Initially, the library's space was 31,400 square feet (2,920 m2), including three meeting rooms. As the building abuts a swamp and nearby Shingle Creek, native plants were included in the landscaping, using trees, shrubs and plants that thrive in Minnesota's weather and support native animals and insects. A library in Brooklyn Center was part of Hennepin County's long-range library construction program which was published by the 1969 Minnesota State Legislature, authorizing three libraries: Southdale-Hennepin Area Library ; Ridgedale Hennepin Area Library ; and Brookdale Library.
Brooklyn Park Library is a branch of Hennepin County Library serving Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, United States. The current facility opened in June 2016, replacing an earlier library building at 8600 Zane Avenue North that opened in 1976. Prior to that the area was served by Hennepin County Library's bookmobile.
Champlin Library, at 12154 Ensign Avenue North in Champlin, Minnesota has served patrons at that address since September 1994. Designed by TSP Architects and Engineers, at a cost of $1.2 million, the library includes 8,905 square feet.
Edina Library is a branch of Hennepin County Library serving Edina, Minnesota, United States.
Maple Plain Library is a public Hennepin County library in Maple Plain, Minnesota.
The Metro E Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Edina. The route will operate from Southdale Center Transit Center in Edina, Minnesota to Westgate station in Saint Paul. Running mostly on France Avenue, Hennepin Avenue, and University Avenue, the line will serve major destinations such as Southdale Center, Fairview Hospital, 50th & France, Linden Hills, Uptown, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Downtown Minneapolis, Dinkytown, the University of Minnesota, and Prospect Park. The route will have "train-like" features to speed up service and improve reliability, such as signal priority, bus lanes, all-door boarding, further stop spacing, and specialized vehicles. In 2019 planning and design were underway, with construction slated for 2023 and operations beginning a year later but that timeline has been moved back. The E Line would largely replace Route 6 which carries 9,000 trips each weekday. The project was fully funded with $60 million by the state of Minnesota in 2021 and is expected to open in 2025.
