See also A History of Dakota County Public Libraries (PDF), produced by the Dakota County Historical Society and used by permission.
In January 1959, the first multi-County Library System in Minnesota was established between Dakota and Scott Counties. Robert H. Rohlf became the first Director of the Dakota-Scott Regional Library. The Farmington Library was the first Dakota County Library to join the Regional Library in 1959. The Regional headquarters moved to the newly-opened West St. Paul Library in 1962. The Hastings Library opened in December 1964.
The Regional Library System dissolved in 1969, with Dakota and Scott Counties establishing their own county library systems. The newly formed Dakota County Library came into existence on January 1, 1969, with Kathryn Loff as the Library Director. The headquarters remained in West St. Paul. The Burnhaven Library opened in 1974 and became the new headquarters for the Dakota County Library System. Roderick Mac Donald became Library Director in 1978.
The Wescott Library opened in Eagan in 1983. The headquarters and processing functions for Dakota County Library System were also transferred from Burnhaven Library to the newly-opened Wescott Library. In 1987 the Library selected Dynix to automate the Dakota County Library circulation system. Dynix was in use until the 2003 Library migration to the Horizon automated circulation system.
The library system continued to expand with the addition of the Galaxie Library, which opened in October 1990 in Apple Valley. The West St. Paul Library was replaced by the new Wentworth Library, which opened in November 1992 in West St. Paul.
On June 4, 1993, an early-morning fire destroyed the interior of the Hastings Library. The newly-named Pleasant Hill Library opened in September 1994 in Hastings.
The Burnhaven Library closed for extensive renovations in July 1994. The remodeled building reopened in May 1995. The Farmington Library moved to new quarters in December 1995. In 1997 the Wescott Library was extensively remodeled. Also a 4,000 foot addition expanded the lower level technical processing area.
The library celebrated the year 2000 with the completion of two new library branches in Lakeville and Inver Grove Heights. The 19,021 square foot Heritage Library and attached License Center opened February 2000 in Lakeville.
In March 2000, the Inver Glen Library opened in Inver Grove Heights. The Inver Glen Library was the result of a partnership between Dakota County, the City of Inver Grove Heights, School District 199 and Inver Hills Community College. Designed for greater technology access, the 12,482 square foot Inver Glen contains the library system's first computer lab.
In 2004 the 30,084 square foot Galaxie Library went through a remodel that resulted in the construction of a second library computer lab. The Galaxie computer lab opened to the public in February 2005.
The remodeling phase continued as the Wentworth Library closed on October 2007. In order to continue service for the community, a temporary Wentworth Library location opened in the Northern Service Center Building from October 2007 to January 2008. The temporary site closed with the reopening of the remodeled Wentworth Library on January 22, 2008. As part of the remodeling, the 28,825 square foot Wentworth library opened with the third public computer lab.
The remodeling continued in 2008 with the Wescott Library closing for a remodeling phase in September. A temporary Wescott library location opened on the second floor of the Eagan Civic Arena. This was the first time in Dakota County Library’s history that a patron could check out a book and watch a hockey game at the same time. The temporary library site closed with the reopening of the remodeled Wescott Library on January 2, 2009. Similar to Wentworth Library, the Wescott remodel added additional public Internet stations, including the Library system’s fourth public computer lab. The 38,918 square foot Wescott Library also contains the Dakota County Library Administration and system technical processing offices.
The newly built Robert Trail Library opened on February 2009 in Rosemount, Minnesota. The 22,140 square foot building included the fifth computer lab as part of the 28 Internet stations available for public use. Robert Trail is the ninth library building in the Dakota County Library System.
The Dakota County Library System is governed by seven library board trustees who are appointed by the Dakota County Commissioners to serve three-year terms. In 1969 Kathryn Loff started as the first Dakota County Library Director. Roderick Mac Donald was Library Director from 1978 to1995. Bill Asp served as Library Director from January 1996 through December 2003. Ken Behringer became Director of the Dakota County Library System in May 2004.
The Dakota County Library System has the third largest circulation per capita in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.