Library News

Do you love a good puzzle, but find you’re not in the mood for violence? Cozy mysteries are a popular subgenre of mystery, and typically feature an amateur sleuth in a picturesque setting.  Our list of “Mystery Minus Murder” titles takes the warm feeling one step further by highlighting books that don’t include murder at all! These cozy reads feature historical riddles, blackmail, family mysteries and puzzling antiques. Many are available in a variety of formats, including eBook and eAudio.

West Des Moines, IA–At a mid-day meeting of the Library Board of Trustees on January 5, board members decided that The West Des Moines Public Library will reopen to limited walk-in traffic starting at 9am on Monday, January 11.

In late December our new children's book shelves were full to capacity, so we asked our readers via social media to help us get them out into circulation and you responded! We have heard you and your desire for book bundles for kids and we are delighted to roll out this new service. Here's what you need to know:

A guest post by our student author Claire:

Remember the West Des Moines Library Friends Foundation as you make your final contributions for 2020 - or your first ones for 2021!   

A donation to the Friends Foundation is a tax-deductible gift that helps support WDM Library programming and materials.  This last year, they funded the new Valley Junction Library Kiosk.  Every year they give 1000s of dollars to support our extensive programs for adults and children, including our book clubs and Summer Reading.    

Thank you from the Friends!  

Welcome, friends!  After months of work, our new West Des Moines Public Library Website is up and running!  

We have reorganized and refreshed our graphics, our information, and our look.  The whole site has been made more mobile-friendly, with easy links to our many wonderful services - some of which may be new to you.   

We hope you like our bright, fresh new look and feel.  We invite you to explore and enjoy!   

Today we are delighted to share with you work from Elvira Hadzic’s ninth-grade English class. Students in this class created literary playlists that capture the essence of the themes and phases of characters from The Odyssey in modern song. Since we are unable to invite you into our building to view these projects in person, we are sharing them here instead. Enjoy!

This renovation project probably feels like it has taken a long time–remember October 2019 when the library closed for the first renovation stage and your librarians packed up over 30,000 books for storage? We moved all the stacks around and dove into Phase 1 of our project. That transition took two long weeks and it felt like ages before we were able to welcome you back inside (little did we know what was in store for all of us this year…ha). During Phases 1 and 2 the second floor of the library received its refresh.

Today is Indigenous People’s Day and for the occasion, I’ve compiled a couple of resources for you. The library strives to be a welcoming place for all people and to provide resources and books that genuinely reflect the stories of the authors and of our community. We are hosting READ WOKE, and these resources can serve as a compliment to that program.

This MAP is a resource to show you what Native Land you are on.