The new Minneapolis Central Library, just a month before it opened in 2006. Star Tribune staff photo by David Brewster

The new Minneapolis Central Library, just a month before it opened in 2006. Star Tribune staff photo by David Brewster

 
Five years already, really? The Minneapolis library that I think of as just-hatched is already a toddler. Minneapolis Central Library on the Nicollet Mall will celebrate its fifth birthday on Saturday, and the public is invited to come and play.
 
T.C. Bear will be there (he might find it more fun to be at a library these days than at a Twins game), and there will be films, polka music, a scavenger hunt, refreshments, and poetry (but fun poetry!).
 
Here’s the schedule:
 
10:30 a.m. Childish Films Season Finale, “Flying through the Air.” Mary Mack and Stephanie Ash will perform polka music in tribute to Ruth Adams of Nye’s Polannaise Room.
 
Noon: Storytelling—baseball stories, of course—with T.C. Bear, the mascot of the Minnesota Twins.
 
2 p.m.: celebrity poetry reading. Well, Minnesota doesn’t really have celebrities, so maybe “notable people reading poetry” would be a little more precise. Amber Damm (former Minnesota teacher of the year); Dennis Douda, WCCO-TV anchor; Sintripetal Force of the Minnesota RollerGirls; Chris Osgood of the Suicide Commandos; and others.
 
And all day, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., library tours, giveaways, book sales, music and painting booths, and a scavenger hunt.
 
All of which should send the message, loud and clear, that libraries are vibrant places where people and kids can hang out, learn, read, compute, listen, talk, and have fun.
 

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