Clark County library cardholders have access to many unknown perks
The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is touting two new services to potential cardholders as part of the American Library Association’s national Library Card Sign-up Month, which is September.
People with cards now receive free access to Rosetta Stone language-learning software and the Las Vegas-based Socrates math tutoring program, which is aimed at children in kindergarten through fifth grade and incorporates video games.
“So many people don’t know what’s available for free using their library card,” library district Executive Director Ronald Heezen said. “Everything we offer digitally, most folks are unaware of, so they’d be surprised to learn what we have.”
Summerlin branch manager Gregory Carr echoed those sentiments.
“We’re trying to get as many people — parents (and) children — to come in and interact with our staff and programs, and just to become more aware of what’s in our system,” he said Tuesday at the library.
Among the less-visible offerings touted by the Library District:
- 13 million songs available at libraries or at home via the Freegal Music streaming app. Cardholders may download up six songs per week and access up to three hours of streaming music a day.
- Movie streaming and downloading via Hoopla Digital. Patrons also can check out DVDs and access audiobooks, e-books, comics and TV shows. Users may borrow up to 10 titles per month.
- Educational courses via free access to lynda.com, as well as children’s learning programs such as the language-improvement tool Muzzy.
- Nevada Career Explorer, which lists jobs and offers a self-assessment to determine which jobs might fit best.
The library district welcomes feedback, Heezen said.
“We’re always trying to anticipate what are our users going to want, so we try to provide that for them,” he said.
Contact Jacob Lasky at 702-383-2819 or jlasky@reviewjournal.com Follow @Jtlasky on Twitter.
Superhero theme
Pixar's "The Incredibles" is the theme of this year's Library Card Sign-up Month.
The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District will celebrate Superhero Costume Week Sept. 16-22, encouraging visitors to dress as superheroes during story time events. Children who attend will get a certificate with their name on it whether or not they dress up.
Patrons also may enter to win a #GetCarded library tote bag by filling out a comment card at one of the district's 25 branches about why their library card is "incredible."
By the numbers
The Clark County Library District reports that it had more than 600,000 active library cards as of June 30, and that it issued more than 90,000 new cards in the fiscal year that began July 1, 2017.
