There are so many great ways to get information on the internet. Sometimes people overlook the services their local library provides. It’s one more resource where people can find some great information or entertainment without cost to them.
At one time, I used to obtain library cards from cities in my state whenever I traveled somewhere. At the time, there was no requirement that I be a resident of the area, just a resident of the state. Many of the places have changed this policy since, from what I can tell. Since I’d be remote from them, I couldn’t take out library books, but I could still use their electronic services which were better than my local ones. Some of those electronic e-book and audiobook services were really nice.
There was a service called netlibrary that had some really nice audiobooks from Recorded Books. There was another service called Overdrive that wasn’t as good but still had some nice audiobooks.
Those library cards have all expired except for my local ones. But even the local ones now have some pretty nice electronic services. There’s a service that allows you to look at several magazines online (pretty pictures1). There are a couple e-book services which also offer audiobooks of some of the e-books. There is also access to academic websites and some job-placement related type services.
Do you have a library card? Do you use the electronic services from your library?
It might be helpful to others if you named them so people know which services to look for. Librarians that I’ve spoken with haven’t been very knowledgeable about electronic services as much as they know about books, but they may be able to get more services if people ask for them by name.