Celebrating 125 Years of Service


125th Anniversary

 

This year we are celebrating the quasiquicentennial anniversary of the Iowa City Public Library’s foundation, which was in no small part helped by all of you! After 125 years we are grateful to still be serving the community. Of course, that service looks different now in 2021 than it did in 1896. Our history is detailed in the book A Century of Stories, by Lolly Eggers, if you would like a picture of our first century of service. During our year of celebration, we will be recapping that century of history as well as including the last 25 years in various blog posts and digital displays. We are also celebrating our present by collecting your stories about the library, to share with everyone on our social medias and website. To celebrate and support us in the future, we will be hosting various fundraising events throughout the year.

From the Past

To celebrate our history, check out our webpage. There you will be able to Explore our History with a timeline of major events, from our foundation up until the present day. For a visual experience, you can look through our Decades of Service digital display. It will be periodically updated with a new decade of history throughout our year of celebration, including photographs, documents, and articles from that decade. When a new decade is added, we will also post context for that decade in a blog post. So while you click through the images, you can read all about the stories behind them!

To the Present

At the top of the anniversary webpage (icpl.org/125), there is a section called Share Your ICPL Story. We’re asking you all to help us celebrate by sharing your own experiences with the library. The prompt will change periodically, so feel free to share multiple stories with us. On social media, you can use the tag #LasBibliotecasSonParaTodxs or #LibrariesAreForEveryone to tell us your library stories. They could be posted on our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Another way to celebrate the present with us is by using the Top Borrowed Items lists we have to find your next check outs!

And into the Future

For now, we have one event planned coming up very soon. On March 25th, Andrew’s Bar Exam is helping the library host a trivia night to celebrate our 125 years of service. The link to register is on our event page. We hope to see you there! We'll be celebrating all year long so keep an eye out for more events, looks through history, and stories from the community.

Thank you for your support of the library. Here's to 125 more years of service!

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