St. Anthony Park Branch Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The St. Anthony Park Branch Library is a branch of the St. Paul Public Library. A Carnegie library built in 1917, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1999 a rotunda was built on to the back of the building. This new section houses the branch’s children’s collection, one of the largest in St. Paul.
Although one of St. Paul’s smaller library branches at 10,590 square feet, the St. Anthony Park Branch circulated 265,776 items in 2005, making it the third busiest branch in the city. The on-site collection numbered 55,175 items that same year. The branch is open 60.5 hours per week, all seven days.
The library branch is considered an icon of the upscale Saint Anthony Park neighborhood. Primary user groups are neighborhood residents, students and faculty from the nearby University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus and Luther Seminary, and students from two nearby public schools. One-third of users come from Minneapolis and suburban Ramsey County. To serve the many U of M graduate students and their families from who are from Asia, the branch has the city’s primary collection of Chinese and Japanese language materials.
The St. Anthony Park Branch is unique in having its own community advocacy group, the St. Anthony Park Library Association (SAPLA), in addition to the overall Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. The annual St. Anthony Park Arts Festival began on the library’s front lawn and now sprawls for more than a block. During the festival, which is the first Saturday in June, the library holds a very large used book sale.
