Use Your Local Library

Unfortunately, it's already the last day of Easter break and I'm definitely not ready to go back to school/work.  But in the meantime, I want to share something that I'm surprised people (including myself) don't use more: public libraries.  It's like a Borders with free books, music, and movies.  If you're lucky, you can find anything a nerdy heart desires, from manga to computer games to foreign language software.  They don't have what you want at a library close to you?  Most deliver free to your house.

The Orange County Library Systems in Orlando and surrounding area has tons to offer, and other libraries aren't any different.  They have really interesting free classes, either in person or online.  The selection is huge, and some of them, like Photoshop and Microsoft Access, are expensive if you take them at other places.  Other classes include help with taxes, job searching, computer repair, web design, and networking.  In Orlando and other areas classes are offered in Spanish and even in Hatian Creole.

A new page I came across today deals with bookclubs.  Libraries offer book clubs in English and Spanish, but what I never realized is that they have online bookclubs.  For example, OCLS will send you a few pages of a book everyday by email.  They have a new book every week.  Apart from that they have guides for creating your own bookclubs and the option to borrow "bundles" of books for your whole group.

Although libraries are moving more and more online with email bookclubs, online classes, and downloadable ebooks and audio books, it's definitely worth checking out the programs they offer at the library.