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| Minneapolis Central Library |
The Minneapolis Library has a lot going for it, the most obvious being a spectacular new building (it almost seems too light to be a called a building) designed by Cesar Pelli in 2006. Pelli’s was invited back after designing the Wells Fargo Center (designed in 1988), a major player in downtown Minneapolis. The library (located at 300 Nicollet Mall), constructed out of glass, concrete and Minnesota limestone, seems almost transparent as it gently rests on its downtown block. The interior is equally invisible and features glass walls and railings throughout the sun drenches space. The final touch is a 8,000 foot central atrium topped by a steel roof that is perched like a giant glider prepared for take off.
After a day or two in the city you also would probably notice a thriving literacy community. Minneapolis is incredibly lucky to have a facility like Open Book (see yesterday's entry) filled with organizations determined to open the world of books to anyone who cares to wanders by or click in online. And, according to manta.com, there are more than 90 bookstores in Minneapolis, a tremendous number for a city of about 400,00 people.
I thought I was getting a clear understand the culture of the city and their devotion to books but I was missing a rather large piece of the puzzle. According to the library website “one in every five households in Minneapolis speaks a language other than English, and more than 6,000 new immigrants join the community every year.” Although immigrants currently make up only 6.5 % of MN total population, about half of the national average, over the last 20 years immigration has exploded in the state, growing over 130% (compared to 57% nationwide). According to the report, A New Age of Immigrants, commissioned by the Minneapolis Foundation and written by Dr. Greg Owen, there are two reasons that immigrants are drawn to the city, one is the relative availability of jobs (unemployment was only 6.9% in February, compared to the national average of 8.9%) and the other is the excellent network of social services. The report states that between 1982 and 2008 over a million immigrants from 182 nations came to Minnesota and approximately a third continue to make it home.
After a day or two in the city you also would probably notice a thriving literacy community. Minneapolis is incredibly lucky to have a facility like Open Book (see yesterday's entry) filled with organizations determined to open the world of books to anyone who cares to wanders by or click in online. And, according to manta.com, there are more than 90 bookstores in Minneapolis, a tremendous number for a city of about 400,00 people.
I thought I was getting a clear understand the culture of the city and their devotion to books but I was missing a rather large piece of the puzzle. According to the library website “one in every five households in Minneapolis speaks a language other than English, and more than 6,000 new immigrants join the community every year.” Although immigrants currently make up only 6.5 % of MN total population, about half of the national average, over the last 20 years immigration has exploded in the state, growing over 130% (compared to 57% nationwide). According to the report, A New Age of Immigrants, commissioned by the Minneapolis Foundation and written by Dr. Greg Owen, there are two reasons that immigrants are drawn to the city, one is the relative availability of jobs (unemployment was only 6.9% in February, compared to the national average of 8.9%) and the other is the excellent network of social services. The report states that between 1982 and 2008 over a million immigrants from 182 nations came to Minnesota and approximately a third continue to make it home.
Minnesota began welcoming immigrants in the 1970s and 80 when it created a safe haven for Hmong veterans from the Vietnam War. Since then the state has protected asylum seekers from Bosnia, Liberia, the Sudan, and (most recently) Somalia and Burma. Currently, about 23% of the immigrants in the state are refugees (mostly from Laos, Vietnam and Somalia) due to resettlement programs, also more prevalent in Minnesota than in than other parts of the country.
So what’s a library to do? Tomorrow I’ll find out.
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