Cool Cuts and Happy Hair by Mechal Renee Roe These two picture books from Roe celebrate many different haircuts and styles for Black children with full page illustrations. Each beautiful, confidence-boosting style highlighting variations in hair texture from person to person is paired with affirmations to charge up self-esteem. Cool Cuts is intended for masculine-presenting… View more
Both locations of the Cedar Rapids Public Library are now open for Grab and Go from the Stacks in addition to curbside holds pickup. “The Library continues to adjust our service model to provide access in the safest way possible,” said Dara Schmidt, Cedar Rapids Public Library Director. “We are reopening our grab and go… View more
The Cedar Rapids Public Library circulated thousands of books to patrons in 2020, despite the pandemic forcing building closures and a new quarantine process. Check out this list of the most circulated Adult and Young Adult book titles of 2020. 1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Fans of Barbara Kingsolver will love this… View more
As we look back on 2020, we are amazed to share how many new and innovative programs and services our Library developed to meet the needs of the community. It was an unprecedented year, but the Library found many ways to provide access to physical materials, circulating 130,000 items using our new Curbside Holds Pickup process. As… View more
The Cedar Rapids Public Library invites everyone to warm up with a good book this January as part of the 2021 Winter Reading Challenge. From January 1st to January 31st, the Cedar Rapids Public Library will participate in Beanstack’s Fourth Annual Winter Reading Challenge, “Book Like Us,” sponsored by Simon and Schuster (S&S). We challenge… View more
The Cedar Rapids Public Library is proud to announce that we have been selected as a recipient of the Beanstack Black Voices Microgrants. We’re excited to share this news and what it means for our community! As you may know, we partner with Beanstack to power our reading challenges. They’ve offered these microgrants to help… View more
The Library has a wonderful new service available to support you from anywhere – chat support. Visit our website now and click on the chat icon on the lower right to begin your chat. Staff are available during library hours to answer your questions, connect you to resources, and help you access library materials. Current… View more
All students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) now have a library card at their fingertips in the form of their Student ID. The Cedar Rapids Public Library has collaborated with CRCSD to turn Student ID numbers into Library Cards as of the beginning of the school year. “This collaboration brings public library… View more
Bree Matthews is a lot of things in this fantasy young adult work from Tracy Deonn. She’s Black. She’s young (and graduated early from high school to be accepted into an early college program at UNC-Chapel Hill). She’s grieving the recent death of her mother and the anger of a life unlived. But she is… View more
If You Need Assistance: 211 General Assistance Food, funding, and shelter Dial 2-1-1, text your zip code to 899211 or visit 211iowa.org Food Pantries https://www.foodpantries.org/st/iowa Financial Help Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program Disaster Case Management Note: Make sure you’re keeping your receipts from disaster expenses (& pictures) for possible future assistance from feds. Mental Health… View more
