Week Calendar

Preschoolers and their caregivers can enjoy stories, rhymes, music, and learn school readiness skills. Afterwards, we will enjoy free-play together.

Toddlers and their caregivers can enjoy introductory stories, songs, music, and movement! For ages 18 months to 36 months.

Bring your young ones to our Little Explorers program, designed for children ages 0-5, to discover, learn and play with different sensory activities. No Registration is Required. Please wear play clothes as some activities may be messy.

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!

Babies, toddlers, and their caregivers can join us on Tuesdays for rhymes, songs, lap bounces, and a story.

This program is recommended for children from birth to 24 months of age.

Join us for rhymes, songs, bounces, stories, and a little playtime. For caregivers and babies ages 0 - 18 months.

Babies and their caregivers can join Miss Jennifer on Tuesdays for rhymes, songs, bounces, and a story followed by a short playtime.

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.

Join Miss Donna for this fun filled story time! Together we will enjoy stories, songs, and more, all selected to engage your active toddler. Ages 18 months to 3 years old.

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! 

Snippets: A Writers' Workshop for Shorter Works. This group will read and discuss works out loud. Seating is limited. 

Bring your littles to our Play and Learn Group, designed for children ages 0-5, to discover, learn and play with different play equipment, toys, and sensory activities.

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!

Visit the library for a special sneak preview of the Des Moines Community Playhouse production of Red Riding Hood: Both Sides of the Story based on the classic fairy tale.

Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game set in worlds of swords and sorcery where players use their imaginations to tell a story and create an adventure together.  We usually get together on the first Sunday of each month to play. 

Connect with area organizations for resources. Community advocates will provide information about community resources like meal sites and shelters.

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

Join other women who are practicing their English in this casual conversation group. We will chat, share coffee, and learn together in this group moderated by a Forest Avenue Library staff member.

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.

Join us for indoor Park-N-Play, hosted by the City of Des Moines Parks and Recreation department on Monday afternoons in the East Side Library meeting room. Drop in and enjoy toys, games, crafts, and activities for families at no cost.

After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, a strong-willed girl journeys with her crew to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she has ever faced.

Use your fantastic imagination to create castles, fairy houses, dragon eggs and more with a professional ASAP artist. A snack will be provided for all participants.

Do you love to craft? Come complete a diamond painting project or bring your current piece and make some progress! 

Registration recommended.

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.

Aprons on, culinary kids! Kids will team up with an ASAP teaching artist to make a new delicious recipe each week. All supplies and snacks are provided, making this a fun and flavorful hands-on experience for young chefs.

Are you looking for a great place to volunteer? Become a volunteen and help with library projects and programs.

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!

Use your engineering skills to design and build a car out of LEGOs and test it on our racetrack.

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

This class celebrates the process of artmaking as much as the final piece. Each week offers new techniques and mediums that create true art adventures. An ASAP teaching artist leads the class and supports every young creator.

Join us for the DMPL Writer's Workshop on the first* Monday of the month from 5:30-7:30 PM. Share samples of work and receive feedback from other writers in the group.

Start your year with creativity and intention. Whether you began your vision board with our Take-and-Make kit or you are starting fresh, we will provide all the materials you need.

Join us for our evening Family Storytime at 6:30 p.m.! Kids and caregivers can join us for fun songs, stories, and acivities. You can even wear your jammies!  

Best for ages 6 and under, but all are welcome!

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.

Stop by Franklin Ave Library to explore DMPL’s digital resources, including Libby, Consumer Reports, Kanopy, and newspapers.

Join us at Forest for a book club and pizza party just for tweens! Each month features a new book exploring different genres, formats, and topics.

Join us once a month to discuss books by underrepresented authors. Our goal is to amplify these voices and experiences while discussing social issues in the context of fiction and non-fiction books.