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In honor of the debut of the “Purple Rain” musical at State Theatre in Minneapolis, the Hennepin County Library System introduced a limited-edition Prince library card Friday. Twenty-five thousand cards are available at all 41 library locations in the county.
Library director Scott Duimstra said staff members reached out in fall of 2024 asking if they could make a Prince card happen. Other libraries across the nation have done similar limited-edition runs for artists or cultural moments.
In 2023, Brooklyn Public Library in New York released 13 limited-edition cards honoring Jay-Z. According to the library, 11,000 new accounts were created during the release. In St. Paul, a limited-edition laser loon library card was released in 2024 in honor of the discarded state flag design.
Duimstra said it was important for the library to work directly with Paisley Park, Prince’s estate, to curate a card that demonstrates Prince’s connection to Minneapolis and the importance that libraries serve.
“Just imagine the next Prince Rogers Nelson coming into the library to get a library card that has Prince’s image on it, learning about Prince’s life and then hopefully growing up and being that next big inspiration,” Duimstra said.
Besides books, Hennepin County also has extensive resources on music. MNspin is a streaming platform dedicated to Minnesota music, there is a vinyl listening room at the Minneapolis Central Library and studio spaces to create and record music at the Brooklyn Park Library or the Best Buy Teen Tech Center.
Hennepin County currently has 574,600 active cardholders with an increase of 9 percent in the last year.
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