Support Your Library
The Davenport Public Library needs and welcomes your support. You can support the Library’s efforts to provide quality programs and services to the citizens of Davenport in a wide variety of ways donating your time, talents and money.
The Library is currently engaged in an ongoing project to build two new branches. The very successful West Side Branch opened in January of 2006. To support the building of both branches, the FRIENDS of the Davenport Public Library are working to raise 40% of the total building costs. Their Branching Out Capital Campaign has raised more than half of the funds needed to complete both facilities. Plans for the second branch, to be located near Eastern Avenue and 60th Street in north east Davenport, are currently being finalized. Private donations, both large and small, will help the FRIENDS successfully complete this campaign and will provide important matching funds that can be used to qualify for additional grant funding. Click on the link below for the FRIENDS of the Davenport Public library for additional information on the capital campaign and for the book sales discussed below.
The FRIENDS of the Davenport Public Library hold a semi-annual book sale during which they sell donated books and items no longer needed for the Library’s collection. You can assist by donating your used books or by volunteering to help the FRIENDS set up the sale tables, working during the actual event and by helping to clean up after it’s all over.
The new West Side Branch Library offers a number of exciting new volunteer opportunities. For the first time, the Library has a separate room in which to hold an ongoing used book sale. The FRIENDS of Davenport Public Library is responsible for this ongoing effort and welcomes new volunteers to staff the FRIENDS store in order to continue the store's success.
Volunteer opportunities
Many programs and services provided by the library rely on volunteers. The homebound delivery program uses volunteer drivers to deliver books and other materials to residents whose health prevents them from being able to visit the library in person.
The youth services department always has openings for volunteers who can assist with craft projects or who have a special talent or skill that is appropriate for sharing with children.
The Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center works with volunteers for a number of projects. Members of the Scott County Iowa Genealogical Society help staff our public service desk so that they can provide additional assistance to customers doing genealogical research. Other volunteers index obituaries and marriage notices from old newspapers while others complete the computer data entry for these indexes.
The Special Collections Center also relies on volunteer “advocates” – those dedicated folks who are interested in genealogy and local history and let us know when important historical collections are in danger of being destroyed so that we can try to arrange for their donation to the Library’s local history collection.
Make a contribution
In a period of budget cuts at all levels of government – local, state and federal – the Library relies more and more on monetary donations to accomplish it’s mission to provide free and equal access to information to all Davenport residents. Your gift, large or small, will have a big impact on the services and materials the Library is able to provide. Some ways to give to the library include:
- a monetary donation designated to support the program or area of your choosing – youth services, adult programming, Special Collections, etc.
- an unrestricted monetary gift to support the library as a whole
- a memorial gift in memory of a friend or loved one. If such a gift is designated for the purchase of books, etc. a memorial bookplate will be placed in each item.
- a future gift in the form of a bequest in your will or designating the library as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy.