A reminder that libraries are awesome

And they have a lot more than books

I decided that I was not going to buy any books in the month of January, because I have 50 million unread books piled up around the house. But, of course, I wanted books that I didn’t have, so I used the library. And it was awesome.

We have gotten used to finding everything online (and paying Amazon for the few things we can’t get) that we have forgotten all the things we can get from the library.

Now, you may be wondering why an author would promote a place where people an get books for free. Authors love libraries! Libraries buy books! They hold author events (often allowing authors to sell books); some operate bookstores that sell old library books and works by local writers. I use the library for research. There’s no need to look for an illegal .pdf of Day Trading for Dummies because your library has it (or can get it for you).

Almost all American public libraries offer:

Books!

Ebooks, audiobooks, and streaming video

Online databases, such as Jstor for academic articles. Some of these can only be used at the library

Consumer Reports (and other magazines), online

Story hours, book clubs, concerts, movies, and talks

Some libraries even offer:

Tools, cake pans, toys, musical instruments, prom dresses, crafts, puzzle swaps

Maker spaces

Cooking classes

Narcan

Museum passes

Online and in-person learning

Your local library isn’t the only library you can use:

• Thanks to interlibrary loan programs, your library can get materials from other libraries for you.

• Many colleges have community access or alumni access programs that can get you access to more academic databases and specialty collections.

• The Library of Congress has some online resources, including an archive of public television shows and a huge collection of free-to-use images. For cheap artwork, download the .tiff file of an image that you like and get it printed.

Finally, if you aren’t following the Milwaukee County Public Library on Instagram, drop everything and do that now.

Any thoughts on libraries?