The North Side Library’s Heritage Collection is located in the library’s meeting room and lower level storage room.The collection is open to the public during regular library hours as staffing and meeting room scheduling permit. Due to the fragile nature of the collection, the portion housed in the storage room is NOT available on an open access basis. Access to these materials is permitted at the branch manager’s discretion. Researchers are encouraged to schedule an appointment in advance.

The North Side Library Heritage Collection strives to make local neighborhood history materials accessible and useful to our community through systematic collection, acquisition, organization, display and programming. The mission of the collection is to preserve and display materials in a variety of formats that will explain the physical, economic, and cultural history of the Parks area. The collection will also promote an interest in the study of, and encourage preservation of, the history of the Parks area of Des Moines through its unique primary and secondary materials.

The Heritage Collection consists of materials in many formats including books, pamphlets, ephemera, photographs, scrapbooks, letters, postcards, etc. that are related to the Highland Park, Oak Park and Union Park areas of the city of Des Moines. Only those resources and memorabilia judged to be of unique local significance will be housed within the Heritage Collection. To be considered for inclusion in the collection, items must pertain to the schools, businesses, parks, organizations, institutions, and people of the Highland Park, Oak Park and Union Park neighborhoods of the city of Des Moines.

The materials reflect the life of the Parks area, not the interests of a donor or an individual. Materials such as letters, diaries, etc. will not normally be acquired unless they specifically reflect the Parks area of Des Moines. The collection does NOT normally collect items reflecting the city of Des Moines as a whole or state of Iowa materials.

All materials are reference only.

Volunteers may be used to care for resources of the collection. The collection shall be maintained using storage and preservation methods that budget and staffing permit.