Rapid City Public Library

The Rapid City Public Library is the system of public libraries in Rapid City, South Dakota. It has three locations, the downtown branch at 610 Quincy Street, the North location at 10 Van Buren St (General Beadle Elementary School), and the East branch at 800 Mickelson Dr (Western Dakota Tech). The library offers standard services at no charge for citizens of Rapid City and all residents of Pennington County.

The exterior of the Rapid City Public Library downtown branch.

History

Library services were first offered in Rapid City beginning in 1879, when a volunteer reading room was organized by community women with $45, donated books and periodicals, and a free subscription to the Minneapolis Journal. In an 1881 charter by the territorial government, the Rapid City Library Association built Library Hall on the corner of 6th and Kansas City Streets on donated land. In 1915, the city began building a Carnegie library building located on the corner of Kansas City and 6th streets in downtown Rapid City, and in 1917 the library collection moved there. The collection eventually outgrew the space, and in 1972 a new building was opened at 610 Quincy St.
In 2002, the library added an expansion to house the Juvenile and Young adult collections, as well as provide a covered parking space.
In 2008, the Rapid City Public Library opened its first satellite location at 10 Van Buren Street as part of the new General Beadle community center, housing a public elementary school and community hall.

Main Location

Features

The Rapid City main library is a 47,000 ft² (22,300 m²) two-story tall building in Rapid City's downtown area. The library has a collection of over 147,000 materials as well as subscriptions to over 40 newspapers and magazines and 53 internet capable computers. Both branches offer free wifi access. The downtown branch also offers a full service coffee shop, open from 9am to 5pm.
Recently, the Downtown branch was named by Nancy Pearl as one of "10 Great Places to Find a Nook and Read a Book", and printed in USA Today.


The Rapid City Public Library also hosts a digital archive of online resources pertaining to the 1972 Black Hills Flood. In addition to the Flood archive, The library also hosts a wiki collecting information about the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory in Lead, SD.

North location

The RCPL-North location is unique in that during the day, it is used as a school library and closed to the public. When school is not in session, the library assumes public library status and is open and available to the population.

Coordinates: 44°04.700′N 103°13.752′W / 44.078333°N 103.229200°W / 44.078333; -103.229200

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