Library News

This weekend, the West Des Moines Public Library hosted an open house to commemorate the $3 million renovation that wrapped up in April 2021. The celebration also marked the 25-year anniversary of the building at 4000 Mills Civic Parkway which broke ground in 1996.

This renovation became a part of the Library’s strategic plan in 2017 and came to fruition in early 2020 despite the setbacks from the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, even with COVID-19 and the renovation, the Library was only closed for 81 total days from March 2020 to April 2021.

When the West Des Moines Public Library opened its then-new location here at 4000 Mills Civic Parkway in 1996, the City celebrated the creation of a beautiful space for the community to gather and learn. During this initial celebration, the building was festooned with many decorations, including helium balloons. In true balloon fashion, they found their way to the highest and most unreachable parts of our ceiling, creating a home for themselves for the next 25 years.

From Carol Grant, Secretary, WDM Library Board of Trustees:

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the West Des Moines library to reopen.  Two reasons…first, it’s been a year since Covid squelched my ability to leisurely browse the stacks. Secondly, I can’t wait to see (and experience) the final results of the renovations that have taken place over the past 20 months.

Curbside Pickup of holds is available during our Renovation Closure. 

As of 4/8/2021, we have EXPANDED Curbside Hours!  These will continue until we reopen in late April.

Hours for Curbside during Closure:  

     Monday - Thursday, 9am - 7pm

     Friday - Saturday,  10am - 2pm

To Use Curbside: 

The West Des Moines Public Library will close for at least six weeks starting March 1 as the library enters the final stage of its nearly 18-month renovation. During the closure, contractors, engineers, movers, furniture vendors and library staff will re-open areas of the building currently closed, finish design and structural work, install new furnishings, fixtures and technology, re-install shelving currently in storage and assess, sort and re-shelve 30,000 library materials stored off site since the beginning of the project.  

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.