After decades with only one library, Minnesota's third-largest city is looking into adding more

Minnesota's third-largest city has had only one public library for decades, a two-story building downtown. That could soon change.

A consultant review has Rochester Public Library officials toying with the idea of opening more than one library site in town — a significant departure from the city's efforts to expand its sole facility.

"Libraries should be an extension of a community," said Bob Hopkins, a library board member. "Communities are where people are, and there aren't a lot of families downtown."

Consultants with Minneapolis-based MSR Design are recommending that Rochester experiment with what they're calling satellites — not quite full buildings, but limited offerings like a children's library storefront in Rochester communities to test out demand for a future branch.

Nothing is set in stone — recommendations will go before the Rochester City Council in mid-April, while MSR Design will finalize a report later this year. But the idea has library officials rethinking their priorities.

With almost 130,000 people sprawled over 55 square miles, Rochester is roughly the same geographical size as Minneapolis, with a little more than a quarter of its population.

Minneapolis has 15 library branches, while St. Paul has 13. Duluth, with about 90,000 residents, has three branches.

Rochester's 85,000-square-foot library building opened in 1993 after a report five years earlier outlined increasing usage among the city's growing population. The report also recommended a branch in the future, but Med City has stuck with one downtown building despite struggles with increasing usage and lack of space over the years.

City officials hoped to turn that around when talks started in 2013 about a two-story expansion at the library. The building was constructed with additional floors in mind, but officials ultimately decided to pitch only a third-floor expansion in 2016.

The city turned to Olmsted County and Destination Medical Center development agency (DMC) for help offsetting high construction costs, but both turned down the request.

Rochester Public Library found other ways to expand its services in recent years, including curbside pickup during COVID-19 and a growing bookmobile program. Library officials in 2023 called on the city to restart expansion planning.

The library hired MSR Design last summer to review its facility concerns, but the study has expanded to how the library can transform to meet modern needs.

Space may not be the library's biggest concern, according to consultants, as most libraries are expected to shrink their physical collections in the future as people demand more digital offerings.

Lack of parking downtown and accessing the building from the nearby attached parking garage are bigger problems, according to MSR.

"For many of your potential users and current users coming to the downtown library … there's a lot of perceived barriers," Traci Lesneski of MSR Design told the board at a recent presentation.

Lesneski and other consultants recommended pilot programs with trial spaces. Ideas included a library space inside a local mall, a storefront in Rochester's growing north side or some offerings at Rochester's airport.

The storefronts could last a year or two, though some board members think they could turn into larger branch locations with enough demand.

"Rochester's a growing city," board president Nicholas Goetzfridt said. "It just seems kind of natural that the library would need to be looked at in that progressive, forward-moving fashion."

It's unclear how much funding it would take for these ideas. Mayor Kim Norton has supported the library sharing space with other organizations in the past, whether it be mini-libraries at schools in the summer or space at community centers.

"I think there are exciting innovations that we could look at that will maybe provide more access without a significant increase in cost," she said.