Eden Prairie Library

The Eden Prairie Library is a public library in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It is one of 41 libraries of the Hennepin County Library system. The library has 150,000 books and 82 public computers. There are two meeting rooms, a reading lounge with a fireplace, a teen area, and children's area with a Family Reading Lounge. The Eden Prairie Library has the highest number of checkouts in any library, with over 1.165 million.

 History 
alt=The Eden Prairie Reading Center was housed in a double Quonset hut from 1973 to 1986.|thumb|Eden Prairie Library in 1972
The first Eden Prairie library was located in a school. The school library opened in 1924. The school board made a deal with Hennepin County Library to use the school library space. In the 1950s, the school library was too small for the books. The Hennepin County Bookmobile served Eden Prarie until 1972. The first building opened in 1972 with 12,000 items. In 1986 a new building was made on Prairie Center Drive. This new location became the Eden Prairie Community Library, with 47,000 items.

Eden Prairie's population grew from 16,000 in 1980 to 54,000 in 2000. The building started construction in July 2002. Many problems interrupted the construction including water damage and the original builders going bankrupt. The new Eden Prairie Library opened its doors to the public on August 12, 2004.

 Poem 
The following poem is included as decoration of the library:

 To Make a Prairie
 by Emily Dickinson

 To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
 One clover, and a bee.
 And revery.
 The revery alone will do,
 If bees are few.

 References 

Category:Libraries in Hennepin County Library
Category:1924 establishments in the United States
Category:Minnesota
Category:Education in the United States
Category:1920s establishments in Minnesota