Upcoming Events

Join ASAP for a group painting party, with a different finished work each week. Drop in once or every week; all supplies and snack provided.

It's game on after school at North Side! Hang out in the meeting room with snacks and a wide variety of games. Play Nintendo Switch on the big screen, or enjoy checkers, Connect 4, Exploding Kittens, and more!

Learn how to use the Bambu X-1 Carbon filament 3D printer and the Formlabs Form 3 resin 3D printer.  Participants will learn how to use the free software to prepare their 3D files for printing at the library.

Join fellow postcard lovers for a cozy Postcrossing meetup at the library! Bring your cards and love of connecting through the mail. We’ll enjoy tea, light treats, and great conversation while we write, swap, and chat with other Postcrossers.

Staff from the Evelyn K Davis Center for Working Families are ready to provide one-on-one job search and resume assistance to job seekers.

Are you searching for a new job, having trouble navigating a website, or looking to learn a new digital skill? Goodwill is at the library to help!

Listen to silly stories, sing songs, dance to music, and make art! Join Miss Emily for Family Storytime every Wednesday morning at 10:15 AM. Designed for children ages 0–5, this storytime welcomes all ages to join in the fun.

Let's explore rhythm and music through a variety of instruments, including keyboards and our own voices!

February 4, 11, 18, 25. Snack provided for all participants.

Visit the library to create beautiful artwork of the Northern Lights using oil pastels and paint.

Get creative at North Side! Drop-in on Wednesdays to enjoy our large cart of art supplies.

Join us at Forest Avenue Library for Card Club. We will play trick-taking card games such as 500, Euchre, Hearts, Spades, Tiến lên and others.

A Death Café is a relaxed, welcoming space where people gather to talk openly about death and dying over tea and conversation.

Children ages 3 to 5 and their caregivers can join us Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. for a 30-minute storytime with stories, music, and fun activities!

Join us for indoor Park-N-Play, hosted by the City of Des Moines Parks and Recreation department on Thursday mornings in the Franklin Avenue Library meeting room.

Enjoy a fun storytime featuring movement, music, and rhyming! 

Need help with a phone, laptop, or tablet, or another electronic device? Come by the Central Library at 2PM on Thursdays and our staff will work with you to figure things out. This is a drop-in, first-come first-served service.

You tried. You missed. You're invited!

Anyone who has ever done anything has failed at least once. You didn't learn to walk without falling down a ton of times! It's part of learning. And that's worth celebrating!

Learn how to design, build, and collect your own artistic, adorable, and/or awesome stickers. We'll even make puffy stickers and a mini-sticker album to keep our creations safe! Supplies and snacks provided. February 5, 12, 19, 26

Ukulele players of all skill levels can jam together at North Side! Take your ukulele skills to the next level, have fun jamming to some old favorite songs and learn new songs along the way!

Art Club will occur on the first Thursday of each month. It will feature picture books and a related art project each month. We will learn about artists, art concepts, and topics that will give us inspiration to make our own art.

Story Lab is a relaxed, supportive meetup for writers working on short stories or novels. Bring your plot questions, character issues, or story challenges, and we’ll talk them through together—no reading aloud. All experience levels welcome.

Are you searching for a new job, having trouble navigating a website, or looking to learn a new digital skill? Goodwill is at the library to help!

Join us in the Forest Meeting Room where building blocks will be available for open play! Use your imagination to build your ideas or use the STEM-challenge prompts and building guides to bring ideas to life. Drop-in anytime between 12-5pm.