Roosevelt library: Long-awaited sequel

There was definitely no librarian-like "shhhh" when Jukka Keller burst through the front door of the Roosevelt branch library and exclaimed: "Where you been? I've been waiting out here for a year!" ¶ The south Minneapolis library was one of three branches to reopen at noon Thursday, a year and five days after going dark because of city budget cuts. ¶ The Roosevelt, Webber Park and Southeast branches reopened as Hennepin County libraries, the most noticeable change since the county takeover of city libraries took effect Tuesday.

Library staffers had prepared for the day since late November, when they returned to unpack new materials. But something was missing.

"We quickly realized what makes a library was the people," said librarian Lisa Stuart. "We've been waiting for a month."

The three library workers met the first comers with gifts. Tom Kearns, who dropped by in search of a DVD for his niece, got a gift card to a nearby coffee shop. "You're open, huh?" he said, after a year of using the Nokomis branch instead.

For the first kids, Teddy Jorstad, 8, and Marie Peterson, 6, there were T-shirts wrapped in ribbon.

The ribbon reminded mother Karen Jorstad of the blue ribbon that neighbors wound through the fence at the end of 2006 to mark the library's shutdown. She remembers County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin and other elected officials pledging to work to reopen the library. "It looked very bleak," Jorstad said.

McLaughlin was the architect of the merger, working the Legislature for a law to allow the merger, contingent on city and county approval.

But perhaps the biggest change will come in access. Although the library is reopening with the same 24 hours weekly as before the shutdown, it will be open two nights (Tuesday and Thursday noon to 8 p.m.) and on Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) rather than the previous schedule of one night and no weekend hours.

Jorstad's family used the East Lake branch during the interim, but Roosevelt was within walking or biking distance for her children, and the family would typically see people there they knew. "They've been waiting all morning for it to open up," she said.

The opening was particularly poignant for area library manager Tonya DePriest. "I was the one who had to stand up on a chair and tell everyone we were closed. It was the most heartbreaking day of my career," she said.

Stuart, the librarian, is anticipating a long career at Roosevelt. "I've never had my own little library," she said, already envisioning kids maturing from picture books to chapter books to college search materials. "It's going to be thrilling to watch children grow up."