Monetary Donations

Consider that:

$100 connects one family to the internet at home for an entire school year, making possible the completion of online homework assignments, access to live tutoring, and exploration of college and job opportunities 

$250 teaches 65 brand new parents about the importance of reading to their newborns and gives each baby their first book 

$500 starts home libraries for 116 children living in poverty (extra important because being surrounded by books at home is the single most important predictor of student performance) 

$1,000 grants a full scholarship to one adult earning their high school diploma and career certificate from the Library’s Career Online High School, giving them a second chance to build a better life for their family.
(In case all this impact isn’t enough for you, a one-time gift of $1,000 to the Friends today makes you a member of the Friends for life!)

Book Donations

Thank you for thinking of the Kansas City Public Library when selecting a home your treasured items! The Friends of the Library will  accept and sort your in-kind donations of books and other materials, finding new homes for them mostly through various book sales throughout the year.  Some books may be donated locally to special groups.

To make a donation of just a box or two, you may bring them to the circulation desk of your local KCPL branch during open hours. To see a full list of library locations and hours, visit www.kclibrary.org/library-locations. 

If you have more than 2 boxes of books to donate, please contact our "Master of Books", Tom,  directly by email or phone at 816.529.5884. He'll happily coordinate a drop off or schedule a pick up. Even if you have trucks filled with boxes of books, the Friends will work with you to accept your gifts!

Please do not donate anything dirty, smelly, or damaged.

Please do not leave donations of any kind outside Library locations -- Library staff do not have the resources to collect the items on our behalf & we never want to give our Library friends more work to do.

Please do not bring a zillion boxes of books to your local Library location without first contacting the Friends. We will work with you so that we can meet you to accept your donation or arrive shortly after your drop off to clear the books out of the Library's way.

We accept:

• Fiction and nonfiction (both paperback and hardcover)
• Children's and young adult books
• Rare/vintage/antiquarian books (generally books published before 1955)
• Dictionaries and reference books
• Cookbooks
• Arts books (e.g. art, music, film, photography) 
• Coffee table books
• Foreign language books with ISBN
• Travel or computer books less than 3 years old
• Textbooks less than 10 years old
• DVDs, CDs & Audiobooks

We do not accept:

• Soiled, broken, torn, or smelly books
• Encyclopedias 
• Textbooks more than 10 years old
• Travel or computer books more than 3 years old
• Law and medical books
• Newspapers/magazines/journals*
• Readers Digest condensed books
• VHS/LP albums/audio cassettes
• "Play away" Audiobooks

*Local thrift shops often accept National Geographic magazines and videotapes.

Books are the heart and soul of the Friends of the Library, and we love finding new homes for them. Thank you for your gifts!