• Today the Minneapolis City Council approved the transactional documents required for the library merger. The City Council Ways and Means committee approved the documents on Monday, and the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the documents on Tuesday, allowing the merger to take place Jan. 1, 2008.

• On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Public Library Board of Trustees held its last official meeting, ending a 122-year history of governance by this independent board. Thank you to board president Anita S. Duckor, secretary Alan Hooker, Rod Krueger, Sheldon Mains, Hussein Samatar, Laurie Savran, Gary Thaden and Laura Waterman Wittstock.

• Celebrate the merger with hot chocolate at Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 2; more details to follow.

• Roosevelt, Southeast and Webber Park libraries will reopen Thursday, Jan. 3 at noon. Community celebrations will take place at these libraries on Saturday, Jan. 12, including remarks by elected officials at 10 a.m. at Roosevelt, noon at Southeast and 2 p.m. at Webber Park. The libraries will be open Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Thank you to everyone who played a role in preparing for this merger. Hundreds of HCL and MPL staff members, elected officials, Hennepin County residents and others contributed countless hours and ideas during a busy and challenging time. Thank you for all of your efforts.

Patrons, customers and interested citizens are welcome to bring questions and comments about the potential consolidation to any Minneapolis Public Library or Hennepin County Library Board meeting.  Future meeting dates can be found on library homepages at www.hclib.org and www.mplib.org.