The Hennepin County Library system provides community accessible meeting spaces through out Hennepin County. This page combines information from several pages on the Hennepin County Library website that will be of interest to anybody seeking meeting space in their community. Source pages include Regulations for Reserving and Using Public Gathering Places; Reserving a Conference Room, Meeting Room, or Other Public Space; and individual library home pages. A limited number of spaces are currently listed here; please add spaces that are not yet covered.

Types of Spaces

Several types of meeting spaces are provided by the Hennepin County Library system:

• Meeting Rooms: Room capacity is 21 or more.  The space can be configured in different ways to meet the needs of different types of groups. Best suited for programs and events.
• Conference Rooms: Room capacity is 10-20. Spaces have less flexibility than meeting rooms. Room configuration may be fixed.
• Study Rooms:Room capacity is 4-10. Study rooms have fixed room configuration and are designed for small group conversations and study.
• Piano Room: Room at Central Library. Created for the musical enjoyment of customers who wish to play the piano.
• Rental Venues:  Five specific spaces at Central Library that have reservation and use fees. These spaces offer more services and available hours than any of the other reservable places.  Events management and exclusive catering services are offered by a contract vendor.

Restrictions

Hours

Reservations are limited to library operating hours for most locations. After-hours reservations are available at Central Library’s five rental venues..

Food and Beverages

• Meeting Rooms: Food and beverages are allowed only if they are commercially prepared. Groups are required to provide all supplies and are responsible for clean-up.  No alcoholic beverages may be served.
• Conference Rooms and Study Rooms: Covered beverages only.
• Piano Room: No food and beverages of any kind.
• Rental Venues:  A private events management and catering firm, contracted by the library, provides exclusive catering services and is the sole food and beverage provider for the rental venues.  Some exceptions for small groups may be made by the catering firm. Alcoholic beverages may be served by catering firm personnel at events that are closed to the general public.

Reservations

Advance reservation requests can be submitted by members of the general public no more than 3 months in advance.

To ensure accessibility to a wide variety of groups, the Library may limit the frequency of meetings for any group to no more than once per month. Thus, a reservation request may be denied if a request is made for a recurring meeting occurring more frequently than once per month.

Spaces