Built in 1971, Southdale Library serves the residents of Edina, Bloomington, Richfield and Minneapolis with its extensive collections, meeting spaces, and community-responsive programming.
In addition to the Library, the 7.69-acre site previously also housed a Resident & Real Estate Service Center (relocated to Southdale Center in 2016) and district courts (relocated to other county facilities in 2019).
Planning for a new library building began in 2015, was paused in 2020, and resumed in 2023. Hennepin County will build a new library on the existing site.
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Library facts
Southdale continues to be one of the busiest libraries in the Hennepin County system:
- 4th most visited library in the Hennepin County system, welcoming approximately 185,000 visitors in 2022
- 6th highest volume of physical checkouts, more than 250,000 first-time checkouts in 2022
- 7th highest volume of Wi-Fi connections, more than 225,000 sessions in 2022
- 2nd highest in information counts, second only to Minneapolis Central Library
Redevelopment history
2015: County board briefing to discuss relocation of the service center, courts, and reconstruction of the Southdale Library
2016: Service center relocates to Southdale Mall
2016-2018: Series of public meetings to look at library functionality and adjacent site uses
2018: County board briefing on Southdale site re-development, including selling a portion of the current site
2019: County moves Court operations out of Southdale Regional Center
2019: County explores relocating library to the Southdale Mall
2020: Uncertainty caused by the pandemic pauses relocation activities to Southdale Mall
2022: Decision made to rebuild on the current site
2023: Planning & design of the new Southdale Library begins