Hennepin County Library – Pierre Bottineau Library

Very good neighborhood library. Wide selection of books and other materials. Very nice meeting room that can be reserved. Excellent building that fits in with the historic district. Note that there is limited parking and that it is located on a very busy East Broadway Avenue.

My team at work had an offsite here and the place is awesome for a work offsite. It is in the old carriage room of the original Grain Belt Brewing Building. How cool is that. We had a private room that sat the eight of us and lots of plugs for computers and stuff.
It is really close to Dangerous Man Brewing and a lot of great restaurants, so just perfect.
Wi-​Fi worked fine too.
The team that staffs it is cool as well.
Great meeting place!

This is one of my neighborhood libraries… meaning, I come here once or twice a week with reserved items for myself.
The librarians here are super friendly and your quintessential cute, bookish types.
The selection of books is decent. But the reason for subtracting a star is the confusing catalog system of the non-​fiction. The aisles and shelves aren’t exactly labeled with the topics it holds. You can look at a shelf of books on dogs and then right below it are books on war history or something. That being said, I could browse the non-​fiction section for a very, very long time.
Also, the parking situation is scary. The lot itself is fine but leaving the lot right on Broadway and Marshall’s busy intersection means you’re in for a wait, especially at peak times. I usually park on the street (Marshall) and walk through the lovely archway and across the brick paved path to the building. It’s in the old Grain Belt Brewery series of buildings and is surrounded with its tall iron gates and turrets way up high.
Taking the kid there is like a trip to a castle for her. Once we were arrived before the library opened and we played around the lawn sculptures outside. Very fun. Love this library. :)

This is by far my favorite library in the Twin Cities. It may be small, but it has a nice courtyard and parking area, and the inside is very warm and airy.
There aren’t very many computers and really not very many books as compared to the larger libraries but it is extremely quiet here.
The vast majority of patrons seem to be adults on their lunch hours from surrounding businesses.
They also have a «local history area» that has materials on Northeast Minneapolis which I thought was neat.

This library is located in what has always been one of my favorite buildings in Minneapolis, the Historic Grain Belt Brewhouse. I even liked this building when it was abandoned, there was a irresistable mysteriousness about it, especially to me which back then was not yet even 11 years old, and loved to explore.
It took all the way up to when I was about 18 for the building to be restored, talk about waiting a lifetime. One of the things I was really looking forward to was this library coming in to what was the brewery’s Gasthaus (guesthouse). I was anxious to see the famous fountain be restored to it’s former glory as in the vintage postcard I had found in an antique shop (see my scan).
Well they tore off the Bavarian décor and reexposed the old horse stable building that was covered over when it was turned into the Gasthaus, I really miss that place, it was rotting so I guess I understand, but the ultimate sin in landscape design happened here when they tore out the original fountain pond. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They recreated a fountain there but its not nearly as interesting, and lacks the gorgeous pond, I hope they recreate it, that would be awesome.
The library has the nicest nooks and crannies for studying and reading. It’s amazing just what a space can do to your ability to retain information, and learn. The park, even without the old pond is still a really nice place to enjoy the outdoors and maybe have a cup of coffee. I wish there was more things to do right in the immediate area, but with the exception of a coffee house that is hardly ever open there isn’t.
What a spot this would be if the old Grain Belt Office across Marshall Street from the park was restored and had a dining establishment in it. There is one of the coolest barrel vaulted spaces in that place, how cool would that be? Until then bring your own coffee (they allow drinks with covers inside), and if you need a great place to study, or just to read and really take in what your reading I would absolutely recommend coming here, it’s a 5 minute drive from Downtown, and a 15 minute max bike ride, there is even a Nice Ride station across the street.

Been to 2 family story times here. One time we were the only family there, but the children’s librarian was nice enough to do a story time just for us. And afterward, while I browsed children’s books and she was at her desk, she spent a lot of time talking with my curious 1 year old and showing her books.

Really cute neighborhood library branch. It just opened in 2003 and the building is lovely and looks new. It’s on the old Grain Belt brewery campus, so you’re in a old-​new spot. And that huge, amazing castle of a brewery towers over you if you sit on a bench in the little park out front (check out the fountain).
They have a pretty decent DVD collection for a small library, but only a few computers. There’s a small, cozy reading room, lots of magazines, and a children’s area that’s probably as big as the adult side.
Not open on Sunday or Monday (hopefully that will change with the merge with Hennepin County libraries…) but the librarians are cheerful and pleasant and it’s a really inviting place the rest of the week.