Hi! Here's FIVE Reasons FOR Why You Should Consider Getting a FREE Local Library Card (2024 UPDATE)
October 2024 Update: Kimberley Public Library has announced that residents can once again enjoy exclusive discounts at participating local businesses when they show their KPL library card during Canadian Library Month, which lasts for the entire month of October (and you can find more details on which local businesses are participating over on Kimberley library’s announcement post).
Local businesses collaborating with Kimberley Public Library for Canadian Library Month this October 2024
And not to muddy the waters with any more “that sounds too good to be true” information — BUT — besides your KPL library card being able to get you exclusive deals & discounts at participating local businesses for all of Canadian Library Month… having a library card can actually get you a whole bunch more great stuff!
And not just in October, but every month of the year!! And Cranbrook Public Library is up to similar good-vibed library shenanigans this month too (and if Kimberley and/or Cranbrook aren’t your local library, I bet your local library is doing cool stuff all year long too)!
So, let’s break down the bold claim above with a selection of five things that, especially when combined with the already mentioned local business discounts for the month of October, make a very strong case for why someone might want to pop down to the Kimberley Public Library (or whatever your public library is) and sign up for a FREE library card this month (or bring someone down who you know would appreciate getting signed up for a library card with just a pinch of friendly persuasion)!
5 Reasons Why Having A Library Card Is The Best Deal In Town!
REASON #1 - Let’s start with the obvious: libraries are physical buildings filled with 1000s of physical items (books, dvds, magazines, etc) that can all be borrowed for FREE. I cannot stress how wonderful and rare of a thing that is (especially… in this economy?!). Basically, libraries are like stores that you can browse around and never have to worry about making any impulse purchases that will mess up your budget — BECAUSE — if you find something that you’d be interested in taking home while perusing the library’s shelves… you just check that something out for FREE with your library card (a library card that you also get for FREE)!
REASON #2 - In a world full of unlimited choice, the idea of limiting one’s attention to only the thousands of physical items currently available at Kimberley Public Library’s physical location (during opening hours) probably sounds a touch too quaint for most modern consumers. But ‘most’ don’t realize that you can also do your searching online through your library My Account page (where you can place holds and save items to lists for later) and you can also use the BC Interlibrary Connect to search for physical titles available at libraries throughout all of British Columbia (and then you pick those titles up at your local library when they’re ready for you). This really is an underrated way to find titles that are hard to find elsewhere in our small mountown area, or even titles that are hard to find wherever you live (including DVDs of shows not available on streaming, fyi Northern Exposure fans).
REASON #3 - Of course, not everyone is into physical media formats like books and dvds (or cds or vhs or etc). Or rather, most of us are also into more modern ways of consuming media, like ebooks and audiobooks (especially since phones are now supercomputers that fit into our pockets). Which makes the ability to also turn your library card into FREE access to Libby—a digital service that lets you download eBooks, audioBooks, and eMagazines onto your devices for online/offline use—the kind of ‘library card bonus perk’ one often kicks themselves for not investigating sooner (especially when certain monthly subscription services have a tendency to start adding up in the background… *cough cough* Audible). Whether you’re checking for specific titles and joining the queue to listen/read next or whether you’re searching ‘available now’ titles to immediately jump into, incorporating Libby into your daily/weekly/monthly ebook + audiobook lifestyle starts to pay for itself in no time at all (and that’s not just a joke about how Libby is FREE to use with your FREE library card, so obviously it pays for itself).
REASON #4 - Besides giving you access to basically any physical or digital book ever made for FREE (which is already a pretty good deal, if you ask me), having a library card also gives you easy access to lifelong learning opportunities through Gale (including professional development, technology, and personal enrichment courses). Gale Courses offer a wide range of FREE, highly interactive, instructor led courses that you can take entirely online. Get yourself on the path to find a job, build your own website, start a business, improve your English, write a grant, write that book, brush up on computer skills, prepare for college—ALL THAT and SO MUCH MORE—and all for FREE, with your FREE library card! Here’s some librarians from Johnson Creek Public Library to give a friendly video introduction on how Gale Courses work (while I go check out which courses might be a good fit for freely improving some of my skillsets):
REASON #5 - And besides the Gale Courses mentioned above, Kimberley Public Library also subscribes to a wide range of other online resources (from auto repair to health information; from online encyclopedias to ancestry research) — and you can access all of those resources for FREE with your library card! Check out the full list of resources over here… because there’s way too many resources for me to start listing off individually in this list of 5 things (but I’ll include some screenshots to give you an idea of just how much extra access is available to you with your library card and the curious click of a link or 2)!
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Similarly, there’s also way more reasons for ‘Why Having A Library Card Is The Best Deal In Town’ than I can list in a list featuring only 5 reasons (in case the 5 reasons above have not already made a bullet-proof case for why you should go get a library card for FREE if you haven’t already got one), so I would highly recommend following our local Kimberley Public Library on the Facebook and Instagram for the sharing of EVEN MORE reasons for why getting carded with your local library card is more than just a hot fall trend this October for Canadian Library Month.
Although… you really shouldn’t sleep on those local business deals/discounts that you can score just by showing your KPL card at participating shops this month, as that’s one of the rare good reasons to get a library card that comes with an expiry date (and November is just around the corner, if the recent drop in temperature and falling snow has not already made that clear)!
So, how about it… let’s all go get library carded, eh?!
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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI
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