Wescott Library

Story

The Dakota County Library system is a regional public library system in Dakota County, Minnesota, headquartered in the Wescott Library in Eagan. The system includes 9 branch libraries and shares borrowing privileges with the City of South St. Paul public library. It is a member of MELSA (the Metropolitan Library Service Agency), a consortium of eight Minnesota library systems.History of the Dakota County Library SystemEarly historyThe Dakota County Library System as it exists today is a combination of several smaller library systems. The earliest of these were the Farmington, Minnesota, library, established in 1871 and the Hastings, Minnesota, library, established in 1873. Both were established as subscription libraries, and were relatively short-lived projects, although they paved the way for municipally funded libraries in the early 20th century. The City of South St. Paul, Minnesota, Library was established in 1916. It initially received a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation, but development of the library was halted due to the outbreak of World War I. In 1926, the library received municipal bond funding in the amount of $25,000 for the establishment of a library building, which opened in August 1927, as the first public library in Dakota County.