Legislature Passes Enabling Legislation for Library Merger (5/19/07)
RELEASE FROM MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Today the Minnesota legislature approved
historic enabling legislature that will
allow the Hennepin County Library and
Minneapolis Public Library systems to merge.
The merger can happen as soon as Jan. 1,
2008, and no later than Dec. 31, 2008.
The merged system, to be called Hennepin
County Library, will include 15 Minneapolis
and 26 suburban libraries and will provide
more streamlined services to all Hennepin
County residents. The two systems share a
heritage with common roots in their early
years. A consolidated library system would
bring together two complimentary
collections, a popular array of programs and
classes and nationally acclaimed services to
the community.
"Taking this united action to bring together
two nationally recognized library systems to
create a premier library system will benefit
all residents of Hennepin County, including
families, new immigrants, job seekers and
small business owners," stated Randy
Johnson, Hennepin County Board chair.
In the next six months, a variety of legal,
property and labor issues must still be
negotiated. After this, the consolidation
must be approved by the Hennepin County
Board of Commissioners, the Minneapolis City
Council and the Minneapolis Public Library
Board with advisory review by the Hennepin
County Library Board,
"The time has come to unite our city and
county libraries and create a premier
library system that maximizes the best of
our Minneapolis and Hennepin County
libraries," Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
said. "Libraries are critical to our
community and provide essential service to
our residents, and a unified city-county
library system will help to ensure that
residents have access to one of the best
library systems in the nation."
Pending final approval of the library
unification, Mayor Rybak also reiterated the
City's intent to give the Library Board
additional funding to re-open Roosevelt,
Southeast and Webber Park libraries closed
last year.
Negotiations with four of Minneapolis Public
Library's five unions will continue as
merger details are worked out. An agreement
with AFSCME, which represents the largest
number of Minneapolis Public Library
employees, was approved by membership on May
16. The united library system will be a
department of Hennepin County with an
11-member citizen advisory board appointed
by the County's Board of Commissioners, with
three members initially designated as
Minneapolis residents.
"This merger moves us from a 20th to a 21st
century structure for financing and
governing our libraries. It is essential if
we are to continue the high quality of
library services that we are accustomed to
and need in the future," said Hennepin
County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin.
The City of Minneapolis will initially
contribute the current library share of
Local Government Aid ($6.8 million) and will
fund the first three years of any increased
service hours at libraries, including
reopening three temporarily closed
libraries. The city's contribution to
operating expenses will phase out over 10
years.
Minneapolis Public Library Board President
Anita Duckor added, "As the library board
has discussed this issue over the past year,
our shared goal has been a library system
open and available to everyone, offering the
best technology, the best programs and the
best employees - something this
consolidation would bring to all of Hennepin
County."
Over the past six months, two advisory
committees - the Committee on the Future of
Libraries in Hennepin County and the Library
Advisory Committee - examined options for
providing the best 21st century library
services to all Hennepin County residents.
Both concluded that one united library
system was the best solution. The
Minneapolis Public Library Board, the
Minneapolis City Council, the Hennepin
County Library Board and the Hennepin County
Board of Commissioners approved guiding
principles and support for state legislation
enabling the merger.
Hennepin County Library is nationally
recognized as one of the top libraries in
the United States. Located outside of
Minneapolis, it serves a suburban population
of 762,000 through 26 libraries, Children's
Readmobiles, Outreach Services and an
extensive website,
hclib.org Hennepin
County Library customers checked out more
than 13 million books, magazines, CDs and
DVDs, logged onto the website more than 10
million times and placed more than 2.8
million reserves in 2006. More than 77,000
new library cards were issued last year. The
library is a service of Hennepin County.
Founded in 1885, the Minneapolis Public
Library provides service through the
downtown Central Library, community
libraries, technology centers and online at
mplib.org. The library's mission is to
link people in the city and beyond with the
transforming power of knowledge. The members
of the Minneapolis Library Board are: Anita
S. Duckor, president; Alan Hooker,
secretary; Rod Krueger; Sheldon Mains;
Hussein Samatar; Laurie Savran; Gary Thaden;
and Laura Waterman Wittstock.