Gifts for the Collection at the Iowa City Public Library

Are you a local author or creator? Did you write a book about Iowa City history or another local topic? Please consider donating your book, DVD, or other media to our collection.  

The Iowa City Public Library accepts donations of items by local creators or of local significance to its collection if it meets our collection development policy. It is a way for you to share your work with the community and for us to share community experiences and stories in our collection.  

We generally do not add other in-kind donations directly to the collection, but the Friends Foundation accepts your gently used items for resale. Donating items to the Friends Foundation supports their mission to strengthen the Iowa City Public Library through fundraising, advocacy, and promotion of the library’s valuable resources. For a list of accepted items, please visit our donation page. 

We are thankful that we have a community invested in our collection. For donated materials for the collection, we decided to focus on local items because those are the donations we usually add to our collection. Our librarians work hard to select materials that meet our collection criteria and have a broad appeal to our community.  Due to the volume of donations, we want to be clear about our expectations to respect both your time and the time of our staff.  

For more information on supporting the library through the Friends Foundation, go to supporticpl.org.