Oak Park Creates

Express your creativity and be inspired by your neighbors with support from your public library. As a big supporter of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), Oak Park Creates is a unique local creators program that empowers you to share your books, movies, and music with your community in both physical and digital formats. It also gives everyone the opportunity to read, listen, and check out what Oak Parkers are creating and publishing.

Person writing on a notebook beside teacup and tablet computer
Manager Kathleen Spale with Writers Market book

Get expert answers, local connections

As the coordinator of Oak Park Creates, Kathleen Spale maintains the collection, develops related programming, and cultivates community partnerships for makers of creative works.

Create, publish & share your work

View the Oak Park Creates collection




FAQs: How to become part of the Oak Park Creates collection

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 second 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.

Stay current on news and new arrivals.

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