Minnetonka couple have Hennepin libraries' first passport. You can get one, too.

Glenn and Linda Goecke received new passports Sunday. They're already completely full and the Goeckes didn't have to travel far to get them.

The Minnetonka couple are the first to receive the new Hennepin County Library passport, which patrons can get stamped at each HCLIB location (there's also room to note the date when it was stamped and your favorite features of each library). The passports were presented to them at Minneapolis' Sumner Library by Scott Duimstra, library director.

The Goeckes were chosen to be the first to receive the passport because their project inspired it. Between 2019 and 2023, the two, both in their 80s, visited all 41 libraries on a "tour de library" that the Minnesota Star Tribune wrote about 17 months ago.

HCLIB officials, including Duimstra (who took over that job a month before the Goeckes completed their tour in November 2023), noticed.

"We wanted something to give them but we just didn't have anything at that point," said Duimstra, adding that the Goeckes finished their tour de library long before he managed to get to all 41 locations.

As a result, library officials created about 17,500 of the passports, which are available at all the libraries in the system (it's currently not possible to complete a tour de library because the Southdale location is closed while under construction).

"This is a way to show that each library is special, each library is unique," said Duimstra, who also gave the Goeckes commemorative buttons to mark their achievement. "And it shows how all the libraries are connected, as well."

The Goeckes are not the first to complete a tour de library — there are even HCLIB employees who have pulled off the feat of working at all 41 — but since people have generally done tours on their own, HCLIB has had no way to keep track of them. The passport will help with that.

"This is so exciting. You know, the national parks have something like this," said Linda Goecke, also a park enthusiast (when the Goeckes' children were young, the family visited all of Hennepin County's parks).

As Linda pored through her passport, which features photos of each of the libraries, she and her husband recalled characteristics of each one, including unique artworks and a balcony at Sumner that is said (perhaps apocryphally) to have been where librarians used to station themselves to shush noisy patrons.

Although the Goeckes' passports came prestamped, they already are giving Linda — who spent a couple of years shelving books at libraries — and Glenn ideas about double-stamping.

"We were just talking today," said Glenn. "We may have to redo this."