While Greenbelters await the January 21 reopening of our library, a new video shows us the changes we’ll see there.
Most interesting bit? Hearing that the Greenbelt Library cost just $795,000 to build. Yes, that’s in 1970 dollars, but still, that’s about what you’d pay for a condo in DC these days.
Discovering the Beltsville Branch
While our branch is closed, the next-nearest is still awfully close – the Beltsville Branch, not far from Costco on Route 1. It’s newer and much larger than Greenbelt, with too many computer stations to count.
Where to Find Lynda.com
For decades I’ve been turning to the instructional videos at Lynda.com to tackle the many, many technical challenges coming at me seemingly nonstop. At Lynda I’ve learned photo and video editing, Windows in its many iterations, ditto for iPhone versions, and most recently, how use social media for nonprofits. (It was recently bought by LinkedIn, so you may see it called LinkedIn Learning.)
But high-quality instructional videos like the ones at Lynda aren’t on YouTube and they’re not free. The monthly fee is $25 to watch an unlimited number of videos, which I’ve happily paid for a month or two at a time while I quickly watched as many videos as I needed, before unsubscribing again.
That pattern changed when I discovered that we could all use Lynda for free through the Greenbelt Library’s website. Yay for public libraries, right?
Except that it’s no longer offered by Prince George’s County libraries! I wrote to their Digital Services Department to find out why and learned that it’s “due to privacy concerns over their new platform. Our purchasing librarians are researching alternatives to Lynda. In the meantime, we recommend the courses offered on our PGCMLS Academy page. These include basic computer skills, Microsoft suite tutorials, and IT career training.
How to Get DC Library Card
So I went online to apply for a DC Library card, which is temporary and doesn’t allow you use digital services. I had 30 days to take that temporary card number to a DC library branch to get the real thing, which took about 5 minutes. So now I’m back in Lynda! To find it, log onto the DC Library website, go to “Digital” in the top navigation and click “Learn.” On the Lynda website “library” beneath the top banner to browse topics.
Still these *Great* Instructional Resources at Greenbelt Library’s Website
For pure entertainment we have – all free! – Acorn TV!, Kanopy and Hoopla.
Those are JUST the ones that caught my eye. Check ’em all out and happy learning!
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