Bozeman's Library Turns 20 With Its Children's Books Spread Across Gallatin County Living Rooms

The Community Room at 626 E. Main St. used to be the room you booked for a meeting. This month it holds a smaller copy of the Children's Room: more than 10,000 books, films and audiobooks, the wooden blocks, the wind tunnel, the dramatic play corner, two big couches, the self-checkout machines and one catalog computer. The library's own description calls it "a rather squashed but still joyful version of the original Children's Room."

The original room sits empty behind it. Construction was set to start Monday, Nov. 9, three days before the building's 20th birthday. The temporary room isn't holding all of the children's collection, though. Thousands of the room's books are on coffee tables and nightstands around Gallatin County, and they got there the same way the collection reached this building in 2006: the community carried them.

In 2006, 2,200 People Passed the Books by Hand

The library opened on Nov. 12, 2006. A little more than a month earlier, on Sunday, Oct. 8, more than 2,200 people formed a "Book Brigade" to move the Children's Library from the old building to the new one. They passed over 6,000 books from one person to the next.

The old building stood at Lamme and Rouse and had opened in 1981. Before that, Bozeman's library was the Carnegie building at 35 N. Bozeman, according to a Bozeman Magazine history of the city's libraries.

The East Main site needed even more community help than the move did. The 14 acres were the CMC East Main Depot starting in 1909. After rail use ended in 1932, the land held recycling operations for batteries, mercury, scrap metal and electrical transformers, plus an auto dealership. In the 1950s, asbestos ore was stored on the current library site. The state fenced the property in August 1990, and it sat in ruins until the City bought it in 2000. Voters had approved a $4 million bond to buy the land and clean it up, and more than $1.2 million went to cleanup, saving the original depot structure and restoration work.

Private donors then raised more than $7 million for the building. That included an anonymous $500,000 gift that depended on the building earning LEED Silver certification, according to Kath Williams + Associates, the firm whose founder volunteered to guide the green-building work. Bozeman Magazine's history puts private money at three-quarters of the building's cost.

This October, the Books Went Home With Families

Twenty years later, the library asked for help moving the children's books again. This time the books went into people's homes. From Oct. 1 to 28, the library ran "The Big Checkout" and invited families to borrow Children's Room items for five months. Holds were paused, and people were told to bring wagons, laundry baskets and rolling suitcases.

Families checked out 32,802 Children's Room items during those four weeks. In the same weeks of 2025, they checked out 23,844. That's close to 9,000 more books, films and audiobooks than in a normal October.

Because so many books went home, the library fit the rest of the Children's Room collection into the Mini Children's Room. The library says that saved "thousands of dollars in storage costs."

Every Book on a Coffee Table Is Money Not Spent on Storage

The library linked those savings directly to what gets built. Its September timeline says every dollar not spent on storage goes to "more exciting things like toddler-sized toilets and generous comic book shelves."

The project's budget is tight enough for that to count. On Sept. 22, 2026, the City Commission considered a construction contract with Martel Construction worth $582,000, funded by the Bozeman Library Friends and Foundation. Martel also worked on the 2006 building, where the company volunteered to take on extra LEED documentation.

City records describe the funding:

• The Friends and Foundation offered to fund the project up to $1,000,000. Gallatin County's annual capital contribution and the Library Depreciation Fund add to that.
• $282,880 had already gone to concept design and final design.
• A separate agreement accepted $609,250.25 for construction. The memo says another agreement and more funds "may be necessary" to finish the project.

As of mid-June 2026, donors had given $934,386.87 toward the Friends and Foundation's $1 million goal. Their fundraising page is at supportbozemanlibrary.org.

How the Library Works Until Spring

The borrowing means some rules apply all winter. Here's what changes for families:

1. The Mini Children's Room is in the Community Room. It opened Nov. 4. Big Kid STEAM Play is scheduled to return there in December.
2. Storytimes have moved to Teen Corner. The youth calendar lists Baby Storytime there on Thursday, Nov. 12, Preschool Storytime on Friday, Nov. 13, and Family Storytime on Saturday, Nov. 14.
3. Some programs are held elsewhere. Family Symphony Storytime, offered with the Bozeman Symphony and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, meets at The Hub. A few sessions are canceled, including the Nov. 12 LEGO Club and the Nov. 14 Family Kitchen Lab.
4. Two rooms can't be booked. The Community Room and the upstairs Cottonwood Room are closed to public bookings and library programs during construction.
5. Big Checkout items are due in March and can't be renewed. The library asks borrowers not to put them in storage, take them out of the county, or give, donate or sell them. Damaged items will be billed.
6. Holiday closures. The library is closed Nov. 26–27 for Thanksgiving.

The Room the Money Is Paying For

The construction plan includes a window into the Children's Room so people can watch the new space take shape. The room needs the work. From June 2024 through 2025 it had 135,435 visitors, which was 42% of everyone who came to the library. The juvenile collection makes up more than half of all checkouts. The library says things in the room "are breaking, showing their age."

The design is by Minnesota firm MSR Design and Bozeman firm SMA. The renderings show:

• Twice as much room for comics and graphic novels, plus a water bottle filling station next to the drinking fountain
• A baby and toddler area in the northeast corner by the stained glass window, with soft flooring, picture books shelved face-out, and two built-in reading nooks under sculptural trees
• A vertical play wall covered in galvanized sheet metal for magnetic ramps and balls
• A Big Kid STEAM Play zone in the northwest corner, set aside for sewing machines, hot glue guns and small parts that aren't safe for younger kids
• A "treehouse" nook where the desktop computers are now. The library is working on a laptop and tablet lending program so the room can stay mostly unplugged, which parents said they valued during public engagement sessions.

The room will still be dedicated to Belle Chrisman, who became Bozeman's first librarian in 1895. This is the last part of the building to be updated. The rest of the library was renovated earlier, a project the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported added the first-floor Hub, technology and kitchen labs, and more open space.

Thursday, 1 to 2:30, at the Kitchen Table

The Library Anniversary Celebration is Thursday, Nov. 12, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the library's Kitchen Table. It's free and open to all ages, and the library is asking people to share a favorite memory of the building. The day before is Veterans Day, when the library is closed.

Some of the people at the Kitchen Table may have passed books in the 2006 brigade. Others have a stack of Big Checkout picture books at home that's due back in March. The children's collection now lives partly in the Community Room and partly in their homes.

At Everdawn Charles, we count the library among the places that make Bozeman feel like home, and we're glad to see the community carrying its books once again. If you're new to town and want to know which programs fit your family's week this winter, or you're getting settled anywhere in the Gallatin Valley, reach out. Discover Montana Living: Contact Everdawn.