You’d have to be living under a rock - or under a big mound of books - not to know that the friendly neighborhood public library offers more than the fortnightly loan of a scholarly tome, a slick fiction novel or the latest selfhelp guide.
But you might just be surprised to realize just how many more services are available to you if you were only the bearer of a free library card. Need a notary public? Need to borrow some sheet music or use a meeting room? Want to take a crochet class? Need to borrow a fishing pole? You can do all this and more at a public library.
For some services, you need not even have a card. But get one. The world will be your oyster of knowledge and opportunity.
“Libraries are really evolving, and they are really community resources as opposed to only being a place where somebody can get a book,” says Susan Gele, assistant director of public relations for the Central Arkansas Library System. “The digital resources that we have really put us right on the cutting edge of what’s available.”
Nine years ago, Gele realized when she came to work for the system that “it was not the library that I grew up with.”
Nowadays, thanks to its community partnerships, libraries systems like CALS even lend such quirky things as a money-saving meter that can gauge an appliance’s energy use.
And of course the digital age has greatly increased the services libraries can provide. The Central Arkansas Library System’s website is, Gele says, “really like a virtual branch.”With a library card and a password, a patron can go to the library’s website, sign up for the book, use it for two weeks, turn it back in.
Books, by the way, are not just in traditional “book” form. You can borrow an audiobook. Or you can download a borrowed e-book to your electronic reading device.
Kathy Rateliff, a frequent user of the CALS Main Library as well as a volunteer, does just that. The library, she opines, is an undiscovered treasure.
“I always have so many books on reserve,” says Rateliff, a patron of more than two decades. “As soon as I realize they’ve ordered them, I get on the list right away. So I always have those.”
In addition to checking out traditional books and downloading e-books onto her Kindle, Rateliff shops at the library’s River Market Books and Gifts. She attends the library’s annual Arkansas Literary Festival. “I think I hit just about every service they have.”
CORNUCOPIA OF BENEFITS
With digital services such as Vimeo, library patrons can upload, share and view videos. They can download, onto their e-readers, magazines from Good Housekeeping and National Geographic to Rolling Stone and magazines for computer users.
“You can read the magazine itself without the Wi-Fi connection,” says Chris Thompson, assistant director of public services for the William F. Laman Public Library System in North Little Rock. “You can go read that magazine on the beach. We think that is absolutely fabulous.”
There might even be a video along with that downloaded magazine article that explains and shows, say, cheetahs running across the savanna. “That kind of interactive,” emphasizes Richard Theilig, digital resources manager for Laman Library.
Even free song downloads are available to the 21st-century library patron. Laman Library users also have access to free song downloads - when you download a song that song is yours to keep. Members are allowed a maximum of three songs a week.
Among the newest digital services for library patrons is Hoopla Digital, instant streaming of TV shows, movies, music and audiobooks. Checkout times are three days for video, seven days for music, and 21 days for audiobooks. Content can be streamed immediately or downloaded to use later, and can be accessed anytime during the checkout period.
“For music, I personally have checked out Katy Perry,” along with Rosanne Cash and some other artists, Thompson says. The good thing: You can borrow and listen to a whole CD before deciding to buy the music on iTunes.
“The nice thing about the titles that are available to Hoopla is that you can download them to your device,” Theilig says. “A lot of times on a plane, you don’t have access to Wi-Fi …. [You] can play them on your device when you’re on the plane.”
The libraries provide a variety of educational databases accessible via the library computer or at home with a library card. Via the Consumer Reports database, you can find out about a product you want to buy. Via Zinio, you can read magazines for free. OverDrive and Freegal also provide e-books, audiobooks, music and videos.
Schoolchildren, high school students and college students can access educational magazines. High school students can access online testing preparation courses for college and graduate-school entrance exams as well as the general education diploma.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Libraries have also become veritable event centers. Except that attendees don’t have to go to Ticketmaster and shell out big bucks for admission.
“We’ve really had an explosion on programming over the last 10 years,” Gele says. “Everybody always associates libraries with places where you take children and they have story time or whatever.” But the Central Arkansas Library System brings in three distinguished lectures per year. They bring in an author, usually associated with a speech followed by a book signing. In addition to the Arkansas Literary Festival, scheduled for April 24-27 this year, the system hosts the Arkansas Sounds Music Festival.
The events offered at public libraries can vary widely. The online calendar at the Garland County Library in Hot Springs, for instance, reads more like that of a community center or museum, including such morsels as AARP tax help, March Masterpiece Madness (a contest based on the Masterpiece Theatre TV shows and books), a blood drive and screening of the movies Dallas Buyers Cluband Captain Phillips.
The Fayetteville Public Library - in addition to hosting, each Monday in March, a legal clinic for homeowners facing foreclosure - offers after-school workshops on such subjects as chemistry and archaeology, a March 16 teen crochet basics class and yoga classes Mondays through May 19. On April 11, it will host legendary poet and former Arkansan Maya Angelou for a sold-out appearance. The library also offers a nonprofit resource center, which helps individuals and nonprofit organizations identify potential grant funding sources.
For children, the lineup at any given public library just may seem endless … concerts, puppet shows, magic shows and festivals, such as the Laman Library’s end-of-summer festival, Lamanpalooza. In addition, the libraries offer myriad reading incentive programs, complete with prizes such as a new Kindle.
And you don’t necessarily have to have a library card to attend a library-sponsored program. “Probably 99 percent of the time library programs are free and open to the public,” Gele says.
A NEW THING
The old image of the library as a place where no eating or drinking is allowed, and total quiet is required, has gone out with the stereotypical image of the frumpy female librarian. Libraries now house coffee shops, cafes, and fun areas for children and teens.
And yes, the public library even stands ready to accommodate those who may want to do a little fishing with their reading.
Such a service, Gele says, “was most significant to me because that’s just not what you associate with the library.” The Laman Library lends tackle boxes along with the poles.
Despite all the newfangled electronic services and the fancy events, the single most important resource that the library has is the librarians, Gele says.
“Librarians don’t like unanswered questions,” she says. “They like to know what the answer is and so they’re going to work as hard as they can to figure it out. … The library is where you can find your answers.”
And where you can save money, something to which Rateliff would attest. She recalls spending $796 on books one year. The following year, after starting to make full use of the library, she spent $39.
She tells friends and family about the library, reminds them when their cards need to be renewed and helps them keep a list of what’s coming up by their favorite writers.
“They laugh at me and call me the Library Lady,” she says.
On the web
For the public library nearest you, visit: publiclibraries.com/arkansas.htm
Websites for the featured
library systems:
Central Arkansas Library
System: www.cals.org
William F. Laman Public Library System: lamanlibrary.org
Garland County Library: gclibrary.com
Fayetteville Public Library:
faylib.org
Style, Pages 29 on 03/11/2014