Everything everywhere all the time: electronic services

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge! This month my theme is Library Love, focusing on my love of libraries generally, as well as for the Sacramento Public Library (my local library) more specifically. I hope you find these posts informative as well as fun, and that they encourage you to visit your local library to see what’s new.

As mentioned in my B post about all of the things that libraries house besides books, today let’s take a closer look at some of the Electronic items libraries loan.

Ebooks and E-audiobooks are growing in popularity at most libraries around the world, and I’m happy to report that most library staff fully believe that yes, this counts as reading! (Hey, if my brain doesn’t differentiate between reading or being read to, then I’m sticking with the science on this.) But ebooks and e-audiobooks are just the beginning of all the amazing electronic items libraries can lend.

If your library subscribes to a service like Hoopla, Libby or Kanopy, you can also stream music, movies and TV shows thanks to your library’s subscription.

And if your library is super awesome, like the Sacramento Public Library, you may even be able to borrow a laptop computer (Chromebook) and a mobile hotspot to continue your electronic learning at home!

Finally, if you’ve got your own mobile device but need a place to print out documents, the library’s got you covered. Simply head to the Mobile Printing page, follow the directions to send your documents to your closest branch, and then head to their printing station to print our the job. Prices are 15 cents per page for black-and-white prints and 50 cents per page for color prints.

Fast Facts

Sacramento Public Library originally began lending out mobile hotspots during the pandemic, as part of a grant received to expand internet access to folks stuck at home. The library continues to lend hotspots in an effort to bridge the digital divide and make internet access more easily accessible for all.

In addition to borrowing a mobile hotspot, the library’s Bookmobiles also offer drive-up access for those in the area. If you see the Mobile Services team parked somewhere, you can log onto the library’s free wifi by simply hopping onto the Sacramento Public Library internet provider in your device’s settings and clicking “Accept” when the library’s Terms of Service pop up.

Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to sharing more library trivia, tips and tricks for getting the most out of your local library — using all their awesome and often unpublicized free resources — throughout the month of April. See you tomorrow for a fresh new post!