Bob Dylan Collection Goes To His Hometown Library

HIBBING, Minn. (Bob Dylan Official Website) - Bob Dylan rarely visits his hometown.

Still, the town's library has been putting together a collection of artifacts about the singer-songwriter, known as Robert Zimmerman in his Hibbing days.

Dylan, whose songs include "Like a Rolling Stone,'' "Blowin' in the Wind'' and "Mr. Tambourine Man,'' left town in 1959 to become what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame calls "the pre-eminent poet-lyricist and songwriter of his time.''

Librarian Nancy Riesgraf says hundreds of visitors come to Hibbing to see where Dylan spent his childhood.
"They just want to breathe the same air that he breathed,'' said library worker Roberta Maki, who's spearheading the Dylan project with Riesgraf.

The collection is mostly out of public view, although portions are placed in rotating displays. However, virtually everything Dylan that the library owns is available to the public.

It includes about 2,000 magazine and newspaper articles, 22 collector posters, 50 albums, 40 compact discs and 45 rpm records in their original sleeves; publicity photographs, sheet music and scripts; and a 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook that's kept in a vault.

The plan is to have a Dylan museum in the library's auditorium by May 24, 2006 - his 65th birthday. By then, Maki said, the library hopes to have been successful in securing some personal items.
And if Dylan makes an appearance, that would be icing on the cake. "We know he comes to Hibbing every once in a while, but people want to respect his privacy,'' Maki said.