Library cardholders across Hennepin County and Saint Paul have a new reason to update their wallets: limited-edition Timberwolves-themed library cards launched Saturday, free to anyone with a library membership while supplies last. The cards mark the latest in a string of pop-culture collaborations that have been reshaping how Twin Cities libraries attract — and keep — cardholders.
The new cards are the product of a partnership between Hennepin County Library, Saint Paul Public Library and the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to Bring Me The News. Hennepin County's version is designed by Reggie LeFlore, a Twin Cities-based visual artist known for public art projects and spray-painted murals, who created what the outlet describes as a remixed Timberwolves logo built from the team's new branding and his own signature techniques. Per Hennepin County Library, the design features brand-inspired hand-lettering set against a ripped paper-like texture, revealing an alternative green sketch beneath the surface.
The card is available while supplies last at all Hennepin County Library locations, the library system notes, and it's open to both first-time applicants and people who already hold a Hennepin County card. Existing cardholders who want to swap in the new design will get a new barcode number — their old card can be kept as a memento, but it will no longer work. Minnesota News Network reports that applicants need proof of Hennepin County or Saint Paul residency, a photo ID, proof of date of birth and proof of current address to qualify, depending on which system's card they're requesting.
A Saint Paul Design Rooted in Community History
Saint Paul's edition carries a very different visual language. It was designed by Delia Touché, a St. Paul-based Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Assiniboine printmaker, bookmaker and fiber artist, according to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Touché combined personal archives from community basketball tournaments with Indigenous iconography for the card, Bring Me The News reports, drawing on the sport's layered history within Native communities.
That history is part of why Touché chose basketball as her subject. She has said the sport has become a source of refuge, resilience and community for Native people, even though it was introduced to Native American students during the boarding school era as part of efforts to assimilate Indigenous youth and sever cultural and community ties, per the outlet's reporting. Basketball creates gathering and healing spaces and carries culture forward, Touché has said, a theme reflected directly in her card design.
Part of a Growing Trend in Themed Library Cards
The Timberwolves cards arrive a year after Hennepin County Library issued limited-edition Prince library cards, a 2025 release that proved hugely popular — 25,000 cards were made available across all 41 county library locations, according to MPR News. That effort reportedly began when library staff first floated the idea of a Prince card in fall 2024. The outlet also reported that Hennepin County had 574,600 active cardholders at the time, a 9 percent increase from the previous year.
Saint Paul has run its own novelty card before, too: a limited-edition laser loon card released in 2024 that riffed on a discarded design from Minnesota's state flag redesign process, per the same MPR News report. Elsewhere, Brooklyn Public Library released 13 limited-edition Jay-Z cards in 2023 that reportedly drove 11,000 new account sign-ups, and the Sacramento Public Library more recently teamed up with Sacramento Republic FC on a soccer-themed card. The Sacramento library said at the time that current cardholders could simply stop by a branch to swap in the new design, a setup similar to what Hennepin County and Saint Paul are now offering with the Timberwolves cards, according to the Sacramento Public Library.
Lynx Cards Expected to Follow in 2027
The Timberwolves cards won't be the end of the collaboration. Hennepin County Library says the partnership will continue in 2027 with the release of a special-edition Minnesota Lynx library card, and Minnesota News Network reports the Timberwolves organization plans to introduce the Lynx cards next year as well, also designed by local artists. Bring Me The News reports the Lynx cards are expected to arrive in spring, timed around the start of the next WNBA season.
As with the Timberwolves cards, the Lynx editions are expected to be available to both current and new cardholders at all locations across both library systems, and they'll come at no cost beyond the free library membership itself. Library members can only hold one active card at a time, so anyone switching to a themed design will need to retire their old one in the process.
