Kansas City Public Library

Make the most of your library card, no matter where in the Kansas City area you live. Our region has no shortage of great libraries, and you can find an entire world of resources and unique activities beyond just a great read.

Heidi Pitre’s series merges literature, nostalgia, and history, featuring pen-and-ink drawings on about 160 vintage library checkout cards. Interest in the pieces has expanded, but her supply of old-school, ephemeral cards is dwindling.

The Kansas City Library and Kansas City Star have collaborated to release The Star's historical photo archives, which features hundreds of thousands of photos spanning much of the 20th century.

Officials from Kansas City Public Schools and the Kansas City Public Library joined a chorus of public comments that prompted the delay.

A survey from the National Academy of Sciences suggests most Americans now believe in at least one conspiracy theory. A Missouri researcher says the key to bringing those believers back into mainstream society is leading with empathy.

Eight crew members and 37 passengers — many from the Kansas City area — died in one of the deadliest air crashes in U.S. history. A book explores how, for some residents and families who responded to the disaster, the impacts can be lasting.

There are powerful economic messages to take from the careers of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, writes a University of Kansas professor. A new book lays out what their successes help us understand about the role of everyday women in the economy.

Edward McCabe helped establish an all-Black Kansas town on his mission to create a state inhabited and run by freed slaves. In a new book, author Caleb Gayle writes about how McCabe earned the nickname of "Black Moses" and what his quest for liberation meant.

The Kansas City Public Library announced a "Strategic Plan" to meet community needs, funded by a new grant. Anyone can weigh in on what they want it to include.

Derrick Barnes felt there wasn't wide enough representation of Black people in the books he read as a kid. The Kansas City native's new picture book, “I Got You,” is his latest effort to write characters who can "just be human," he says.

Gay rights activism at the University of Kansas was led in the 1970s by the Lawrence Gay Liberation Front, but it took 10 years and a lawsuit for the student group to gain official recognition. Now, Katherine Rose-Mockry, retired director of KU’s Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, has pieced that history together.

When the school year ends, the need for literacy support does not. Here’s help in finding in-person and online summer reading programs around the Kansas City area.