The Library as a Resource

Like most people, I have not used our public library enough. Yes, I go there and check out books but that was mostly all I did.

Then I found out that I could check out ebooks for the Kindle app on my iPad. That was a wonderful discovery because we travel a lot and I could check out ebooks wherever I happened to be. I can also download magazines and read them through Zinio.

Then last week we attended two free classes on computers. One was on HTML/CSS and the other was Javascript. I learned so much in those 90-minute classes! One of the main things I learned was that as a library patron, I have access to a lot of online resources that I didn’t know about. The instructor showed us Treehouse, which is an awesome learning platform. “As members of the Treehouse community, students can learn to build websites, create iPhone and Android apps, build web apps with Ruby on Rails and PHP, learn about user experience, how to start a business, and much more. Through 1000+ video tutorials, quizzes, and code challenges created by expert teachers, students can learn to code in languages like Objective-C, HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript and SQL.” This is only one of the resources that are possible. I will continue the online lessons at home but I plan on taking advantage of other free classes also.

There are many other resources that I haven’t even checked into yet but I plan on it. I need to use them while they are available because my taxes are paying for them. Plus, I don’t know how long they will be available for free for me.

I don’t know if your public library has the same resources as mine but have you checked lately?  I’d love to know if you find some resources that are useful to you. Please share.

Image: 'Biblioteca' http:/www.flickr.com/photos/77278670@N04/7800101688Found on flickrcc.net