Oak Park Creates

Do you write? Create music? Film movies? As your public library, we’d love to support you and share your work with the world. Oak Park Creates is a unique local creators program and collection that features residents’ original print and ebooks, movies, and music in physical and digital formats.

See items in the Oak Park Creates collection




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Answers to frequently asked questions

Who can contribute?

Anyone with direct ties to Oak Park—including current and former residents and those who work or attend school here—can submit materials for consideration to include in the collection.

What can I submit?

Physical items

Creators can share any physical format such as books, discs (DVD, Blu-ray, CD, LP), and other self-contained objects that can be stickered and labeled for loan. As with other items in the SWAN catalog, the library becomes the owner of all items shared.

Digital items

Ebooks and digital audiobooks, movies, and music can be submitted for inclusion in the library's digital collection. Acceptable filetypes include:

  • Ebooks: ePub2, ePub3, or PDF
  • Audiobooks and music: MP3
  • Movies: MP4, MPG, AVI, 3GP, FLV, DIVX, WEBM, or OGG

Don't have the correct file type for your ebook? Create your ebook in the appropriate format with Pressbooks »

Who can see or borrow my work from the library?

Physical items

As part of the Oak Park Creates collection, your work will be available for checkout to everyone with a library card in the SWAN library network, about 1 million people, and on display for checkout on the Main Library’s third floor.

Digital items

Digital titles selected for the Oak Park Creates collection will be available to download and stream online.

Additionally, creators can opt-in for the opportunity to gain state and nationwide exposure if selected to become part of one of these digital collections for local authors available through inkie.org:

Available to everyone in Illinois at no charge, inkie.org is a suite of resources that support local authors with online creation and publishing tools and allow readers to access locally produced content.

Librarian Kathy

Want to talk with someone at the library?

Collection Management Librarian Kathy maintains the Oak Park Creates collection and cultivates community partnerships for makers of creative works. Kathy loves reading, sharing, and talking about books. Her missions in life are to create communities of readers, convince folks that her official title should be "Book Pusher," and refute that "disco" is a dirty word. Email Kathy at collectionteam@oppl.org »