West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines, IA 50265
United States
For our Renovation Celebration Open House, we invited our patrons to compete in two competitions: a scavenger hunt around the building and a Haiku writing contest. We are glad to recognize our winners of each contest and thank those who participated. We were overwhelmed by the talent and turnout!
So, without further ado...
Our scavenger hunt winners are.... Mishka and Emma!
The WDM Public Library is thrilled to now offer ABCmouse.com, an online early learning resource, to our patrons. The award-winning ABCmouse curriculum is designed to help young children (ages 2-8+) build a strong foundation for future academic success. ABCmouse is 100% educational, with more than 10,000 learning activities (books, puzzles, educational games, art activities, songs, etc.) across all major subject areas—reading, math, science, social studies, art, and music. Over 1,000 of these learning activities are in Spanish.
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.
We’re thrilled to begin showing off the new mural in our Story Room designed by Thomas Agran of Iowa City! When we underwent renovations to the Children’s area of the Library, we knew that we wanted to add something extra-special to the Story Room. Agran’s proposal was an instant hit with his vision to create a mural with inspiration from collage.
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.
Due to needed phone maintenance, the phones at the library after 6pm tonight, Tuesday, April 13 may get interrupted. Curbside service will continue to 7pm as usual.
Pull up, call the number as usual - 515-222-3404 - but if you cannot get through, staff will come out to check with you.
Thank you for your patience!
Phone service should be re-connected by Wednesday morning.
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:
Amazon is withholding ebook and audiobook versions of works it publishes through its in-house publishing arms from US libraries. This may affect the offerings provided to patrons via our statewide Bridges service from OverDrive, though we don't yet know the impact.
Here is a good article from The Verge outlining the issue.
A guest post by our student author Claire:
"A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people." Andrew Carnegie
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.
CALL FOR ARTISTS
Public Library Story Room Mural
City of West Des Moines
WEST DES MOINES: COMMUNITY
Hi everyone! Miss Jenna here. If you're anything like me, you are watching updates and preparing for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover landing on February 18! So exciting! Your library has a bunch of Mars-related materials to help you learn more about the planet and past NASA missions. Check them out below! Mark your calendars and tune in to the NASA YouTube channel to watch the landing. The broadcast is scheduled to begin at 1:15 CST.
