Minneapolis Public Library

Lumber baron and philanthropist T. B. Walker and other city leaders such as Thomas Lowry were members of the first library board.

It was organized by Minneapolis businessmen in 1859 as a subscription library,[4] and its shares were traded on the local stock market.

After T. B. Walker moved to Minneapolis he bought shares in the Athenæum and gave away memberships to it, promoting the idea of a free public library for the city.

Other stock holders raised objections, but the technique worked and soon the city financed a free library for the public with a one mill property tax.

At a cost of $250 per square foot, the library features a host of energy-efficient measures, including a roof garden and substantial daylight.

Until the 2002 closure and demolition of the old central library, the Minneapolis Planetarium found its home there, possessing a projector machine literally older than the space age itself (originally delivered and installed in 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik I).

[8] Instead, the planetarium became part of the new Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota Saint Paul campus.

Of this list, all but the North Branch library were built under the leadership of the city's head librarian, Gratia Countryman.

[28] The referendum began as a framework for discussion called Outlook Twenty Ten: A Discussion Plan to Improve All Minneapolis Community Libraries, submitted to the Minneapolis Public Library Board in July 1999,[29] and drafted in anticipation of voters approving the referendum.

The case followed an EEOC determination on 23 May 2001 that "the Respondent did subject the Charging Party to sexually hostile work environment.