Hudson Area Public Library Capital Campaign
What we heard from our community stakeholders.
In 2024, the St. Paul-based Library Strategies conducted a needs assessment that included focus groups, a SWOT analysis, building tours, interviews with leaders, and an online survey with an impressive 960 responses.
Some of the major themes that came out of these insights were:
• The children’s area is small, crowded, and chaotic.
• The collection is too small and lacks popular titles and variety.
• Wait lists for popular titles—sometimes months—are unacceptable.
• The library needs a large program space.
• Adults need a quiet place to read, work, and study.
• Tweens need a safe place to gather with age-appropriate activities.
Since St. Croix County is among Wisconsin’s fastest-growing areas, the space crunch is not surprising; but the solution has been elusive. Until now. The police department’s move, along with the city’s official commitment to the library’s location, creates an opportunity for the Hudson area.
Library space needs are simple. There’s people space. And there’s book space. Our library urgently needs both.
PEOPLE SPACE
In 2024, we vaulted over previous program attendance records. More than 63,000 community members joined programs, classes, events, and special onsite activities. People also come to the library for human connection. There is a real loneliness epidemic, and people are eager to form new relationships. They want to engage face to face, and libraries are a free, welcoming space for all.
BOOK SPACE
Wisconsin’s Library Standards use metrics to categorize libraries as one of the following: minimum service, medium service, and high service.
The Hudson Area Public Library offers only half the number of books of a minimum-standards library—the lowest possible bar. We can’t expand the collection without more space. Currently, Hudson has to pull books from fourteen other libraries.
POPULATION
When reviewing communities with similar populations, Hudson’s library building is the smallest of the group by a wide margin. Library Strategies’ space analysis concluded that our library should be about 40,000 square feet, twice our current size.
This level of increase in size would meet the community needs now and for the next 20 years.
Learn more about the campaign and download the Imagine the Possibilities, Building Community Together campaign brochure.
Download the pledge form and mail in your gift to:
Hudson Area Library Foundation
700 1st Street, Hudson, WI 54016
Questions? Email us at info@hudsonarealibraryfoundation.org
Imagine the
possibilities when
we build community, together.
Imagine our same location with an amazingly large children’s area with a permanent sensory room, a storytime and program room, an expanded collection, play-and-learn activities, a tween nook, and a makerspace for kids of all ages!
The children’s department more than doubles in size; permanent sensory room with rotating activities; tween nook (ages 9–12) with age-appropriate activities; expanded stroller parking and cubbies; makerspace for technology/hobbies/science; and the teen space will be separate – upstairs in the former kids area.
Imagine public computers on the second floor, a more visible service desk, an expanded history room, and the former children’s area as a teen collection and social area. The Friends Bookstore moves near the entrance, centrally located.
Imagine a cozy riverside reading/work space for adults; private study rooms and small meeting rooms; adult program room(s); a community kitchen for cooking and nutrition programs; quieter adult areas now that kids have their own floor.
Lift our library to the level we need today and in the future.
This project will cost $18 million and will serve every resident of Hudson and the surrounding area. Learn more and spread the word to help build a library our community deserves — today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.
By renovating our current library and expanding into the former police department space, we’re creating a larger, permanent home on the St. Croix River.
Pledged gifts of $1,000 and above will be acknowledged on the capital campaign donor wall installation. Pledged gifts of $50,000 will be eligible for naming rights.
Questions about gifts such as stock transfers, crypto, etc.? Email us at info@hudsonarealibraryfoundation.org
For more details, see our Gift Receipt and Acceptance Policy
$1,000,000 and over Visionaries
$500,000 – $999,999 Dreamers
$250,000 – $499,999 Innovators
$100,000 – $249,999 Trailblazers
$50,000 – $99,999 Illuminators
$25,000 – $49,999 Pathfinders
$10,000 – $24,999 Stewards
$5,000 – $9,999 Partners
Under $5,000 Allies
Our Capital Campaign is currently in the quiet phase.
Please direct requests for information or donation inquiries to info@hudsonarealibraryfoundation.org.