The Book End/The Book Nook

Located on the 2nd floor of the Library, The Book End sells gently used fiction, general nonfiction, cookbooks, poetry, history, biographies, young adult, and children’s books, as well as DVDs and audiobooks on CD. The store features a selection of new and noteworthy books on display and recommendations from our volunteers. The Book End is staffed entirely by volunteers, and proceeds benefit the programs, collections, and facilities of Iowa City Public Library.

The Book Nook — located on the Library’s first floor and open during ICPL hours, offers a wide assortment of media available for pay-what-you-like donation.

Learn More

Upcoming Sales & Fundraising Events

Each year, the ICPL Friends Foundation holds multiple fundraising events and used book sales to benefit the Library. Books are donated by the community and come from discarded Library materials. Scheduled sales include:

• 2/24/2024 – Pop-up book sale of children’s book at One Book Two Book Festival in lobby of FilmScene at the Chauncey
• 5/1/2024 – Johnson County Great Give Day pop-up sale in Library Lobby
• 6/15/2024 – Cool off during Iowa City Pride and shop our major book sale!
• 1st week of October, exact date TBD – join us for a pop-up book sale in the Library Lobby
• 12/7/2024 – Arts & Crafts Bazaar and book sale

Reseller Preregistration

Coming soon

Donate Used Books

Do you have gently used items you’d like to donate? We’d love to accept them! Drop off your donations at the first-floor Help Desk any time the Library is open.

If you have more than two boxes of items to donate, contact the Development Office at 319-356-5249 or development@icpl.org to arrange a pickup time. We’ll meet you at the 10-minute parking spot in front of the Library to accept your donations. Please review the donation guidelines before donating.

Donation Guidelines

Do you have gently used items you’d like to donate? We’d love to accept them! Drop off your donations at the first-floor Help Desk any time the Library is open.

If you have more than two boxes of items to donate, contact the Development Office at 319-356-5249 or development@icpl.org to arrange a pickup time. We’ll meet you at the 10-minute parking spot in front of the Library to accept your donations.

We accept:

• Gently used books in good condition
• Audiobooks on CD
• DVDs in original case
• Magazines
• LP records
• Historical materials about Iowa City, Iowa, etc.
• Intact/complete puzzles and games

We do not accept:

• Damaged materials
• Nonfiction books published 5+ years ago
• Reader’s Digest or other condensed books
• VHS tapes
• Cassette tapes
• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses
• Used fill-in-the-blank books
• Textbooks
• Advanced reader editions of books
• Burned CDs or DVDs
• Incomplete collections (e.g. a DVD collection missing a disc)