Libraries are moving into a digital age. The entire world is. And as much as we value the printed page, e-books and other electronic resources now hold an important place in our society. While I don't think we ever see the ultimate demise of the printed book, more and more people are turning to the convenience of digital and electronic resources. With Covid-19 restrictions still in place in many ways, the use of electronic resources has risen at our library.
We offer several resources that allow our patrons to still have access to books, learning tools, and other digital media. Our patrons receive access to Hoopla, RB Digital, and Magnolia as members of our library. These are powerful tools to provide needed services to our patrons. In addition, our patrons can browse our online catalog and reserve books for curbside pickup. While we look forward to the days of patrons browsing our stacks again, we are very pleased to be able to offer these resources to our patrons.
Hoopla is an app that provides e-books and audiobooks to our patrons. They are limited in the number of items that they can access in a month, but can put together a favorites list for future items. In addition, Hoopla has been offering some titles for free during the pandemic, so they do not count against the patron's normal allotted number.
RBDigital offers digital magazines to our patrons. There is a huge variety of magazines on a plethora of topics that our patrons can subscribe to or just read once. I have several monthly subscriptions. RBDigital sends me an email each month to let me know when new issues are available. This is accessed through an easy-to-use app on my smartphone.
Magnolia is a database system designed by Mississippi State University. It is a wonderful collection of sources for further learning. You can study for a driver's test, learn Spanish, or research a topic for a paper. These are just a few of the databases available to our patrons.
Our online catalog allows patrons to browse our books, DVDs, audiobooks, board games, and STEAM kits. It also provides links to Hoola, RBDigital, Magnolia, and other resources that our patrons regularly request. In a time when we cannot always communicate face-to-face with our patrons, it is nice to be able to provide so many different electronic resources for them.
If your library isn't subscribing to these services or any similar to them, I would encourage you to check into adding them. They are a wonderful addition to what we do here at the library. And they make our jobs as information curators much easier. Contact me if you have questions as I am always happy to assist other librarians!
Take a look at some interesting help guides for accessing digital resources in the library.
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