Still Picturing You Reading

 

Thanks Amy and Spencer for your great entry to our Picture You Reading contest.

The rest of you still have 17 days (until August 15) to contribute your photo of reading “on site” – vacation site, local site, most on-the-spot site.  Just take a picture of you or a friend or family member reading a book at a title-matching site and submit it to us at refdeskATavonlakeDOTlibDOTohDOTus, along with your name and address.

 Here are the contest rules.

How to Hack Your Library

 

This is one of those I wish I had written that blog post posts.  Jeff Scott, director of public library in Casa Grande, Arizona wrote a great post last September entitled “10 Ways to Hack Your Local Library.”  Almost all of it works just as well at Avon Lake Public Library. 

Learn how to get the most out of your library by following the link above.  The few differences:

#5. We don’t have any groups who get longer check-out periods, though our loan period for almost all materials is 21 days, a week longer than Casa Grande.  We would be happy though for you to join the Friends of the Avon Lake Public Library.  Annual dues are $10 for an individual, $15 for a family.  Your dues and the fundraising activities of the Friends provide for speakers and other program costs here at the Library.

#6. We provide 512mb flash drives (with a lanyard) for $5; 1 gig drives for $10 and headphones for $1.50.  These are all sold at cost for the benefit of our patrons.

#7. In addition to Jeff’s reasons for returning books on time, let me add another: the books and other items are here to be shared by the entire community.  When you return an item late, chances are one of your neighbors is waiting to get ahold of it.  Practice the Golden Rule; return your books on time.

#8. To protect your privacy, we don’t keep track of books or other things you’ve borrowed and returned as long as there is not an outstanding fine on the item.  If you want to keep track of what you’ve read, let me suggest LibraryThing.  This social networking tool is much more fun than a mere list of books.  You can keep track of anything about the book you want to remember, write reviews, exchange book lists and find out what people who liked your favorite books also read and loved.

#9. Libraries in Ohio just got a new interface for our shared databases called OWL, Ohio Web Library. These databases are chock-ful of articles and reference materials that put Google to shame.  And without tricky paid-for results to mislead you.  If you’d like a personalized tour of what can be found in OWL or some help doing research in these amazing databases, just stop by the Reference Desk or even call us at 440.933.8128 x 248 and make an appointment with Deb or Cindy.

#10. Jeff says all of these services are free. That’s both true and untrue.  These services are all provided by taxpayers and managed to provide the best possible services for everyone in the community. You’ve already paid for it, why not use it?

Please let us know how we can serve you better!