Red Door Bookstore adjusts hours as Bemidji library cuts reshape service

The Red Door Bookstore has narrowed its schedule to fit the Bemidji Public Library’s reduced hours, a small change on paper that shows how Beltrami County’s budget cuts are reshaping daily access to books, donations and volunteer-run services in downtown Bemidji.

The bookstore is now open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays. The new hours mirror the library’s tighter weekday rhythm, giving regular patrons a shorter window to browse used titles, drop off donations or stop in while the building is open.

Friends of the Bemidji Public Library operates the Red Door Bookstore, and proceeds from the shop help support library programs and the collection. That makes the bookstore more than a side room of used books. It is part of the same public-service network that has been recalibrated after Beltrami County’s 2026 budget reduced library funding by roughly 40%.

The Bemidji Public Library’s reduced schedule began March 30. Under the new hours, the library is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and it is closed Saturday through Monday. The bookstore’s new schedule follows that same pattern of fewer days and tighter access, affecting the volunteers who staff the space and the downtown visitors who rely on it as a low-cost stop inside the library.

The cuts reached beyond hours. The Bemidji Public Library lost two positions, Children’s Librarian Michael Lyons and Outreach and Adult Programming Coordinator Kate Egelhof. Their last day was March 27. The reductions came after months of public pressure, with library supporters packing county meetings before the vote and objecting to a proposal that would have cut the Bemidji library from six open days to four and reduced staffing from nine positions by about four.

One report placed the county’s cut to library funding at more than $170,000. Another said the reduction across the Bemidji and Blackduck branches totaled $185,598. However it is counted, the result is now visible in the day-to-day schedule posted at the library and the bookstore beside it: fewer hours, fewer open days and a narrower span of time for people to use a service many in Bemidji have long treated as a civic anchor.