Thanks to the state-funded Open Access program, almost any Iowan can walk into almost any public library in the state and get a card. The catch for digital readers: Open Access cards exclude ebooks and other digital content — Libby access normally requires a card from the library where you actually live (or a city that contracts with it).
It matters less than you'd think, because most of Iowa's roughly 540 city libraries pool their ebooks in one statewide Libby catalog: the Bridges eLibrary, managed by the State Library of Iowa. A card from any Bridges member unlocks the same shared collection. The exceptions worth collecting run their own separate Libby catalogs: Des Moines Public Library, the Metro Library Network (Cedar Rapids, Marion and Hiawatha), Digital Johnson County (Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty), the shared Cedar Falls and Waterloo collection, and Dubuque's Carnegie-Stout Public Library.
Iowa has no county library systems — every town runs its own library — so this map pins the larger city libraries across the state rather than all ~540. Nearly any smaller member's card opens the same Bridges catalog as the pins shown.
Each pin is a library system (one card per system). Click a dot for details. Progress saves in your browser.
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