Any resident of suburban Hennepin County, or the federal lands of Fort Snelling, may register for a free library card at any Hennepin County Library. HCL library cards are non-expiring.

MELSA libraries also will take suburban Hennepin County residents’ applications and send them to HCL’s Technical Services/Processing section for checking. If the patron has not previously registered, a card will be completed and mailed.

A taxpayer in suburban Hennepin County, even though residing elsewhere, may be issued a HCL library card good for one year. Cards may also be issued to all members of the immediate family living at home. The taxpayer should present the most recent tax statement as proof of eligibility.

If this information is not available, the agency will forward the card to TS/Processing, who will contact the city assessor for the proof of ownership, before mailing the card. The patron may check out two books until the library card is received in the mail.

An employee of the County, who resides outside of the County, may be issued a HCL library card without charge. Such non-residents are subject to the same limits and rules as other non-resident cards. As long as the cardholders are still employed by the County, the card may be renewed.

A non-resident is a person who resides outside the state of Minnesota, or Minnesota patrons whose public libraries are not yet members of a regional public library system. A non-resident may obtain a library card by payment of an annual fee of $45. The fee is determined by the MELSA members.

One non-resident fee covers all members of the family. When multiple cards are requested for all members of the family, a separate card is given to each family

member. The barcode numbers from the multiple cards are all entered in one

record, the fee-payer’s record, for billing purposes. The fee-payer accepts the responsibility for the return of the materials and any charges that may be incurred.

Non-residents who live in an area serviced by a participating regional public library system, or MELSA, can obtain free cards in their own library system. The cards can be used free of charge at any Hennepin County library.

An organization is defined as one or more persons formally organized for some purpose or activity.

MPLIC has an organization card called a Group Card. HCL organization cards and MPLIC Group cards are valid in MELSA libraries.

HCL will issue a library card with regular borrowing privileges to homeless people or people in shelters. Identification requirements are waived for purposes of issuing a card. The address of the library where the patron registered is used as the address of the patron.

Children are not required by the Hennepin County Library to have parental permission or signature when filling out library card applications. This policy is also in effect for children in school or child care groups.

It is the responsibility of the school or child care center staff or child care provider to inform parents that children will be visiting the library and may be checking out materials and to provide permission slips for the visit. When making arrangements for school or child care visits, library staff will ask teachers or child care providers to notify parents that the children will be receiving library cards.

The registration forms completed by the teacher or childcare provider are sufficient verification of the information required to issue a permanent library card to each child in the group.

Recognizing that a wide variety of family structures exist, there are some circumstances where minor children (under age 18) with different resident addresses may have two barcoded library cards and two Dynix patron records. This includes:

Agency reference staff will be initiating contact with various community literacy-based programs as a result of each agency's outreach effort. A Family Literacy card will be issued, by agencies, for use in serving these programs, i.e., apartment complexes with deposit collections, school literacy-based program, etc.