This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
The Longmont Public Library is happy to announce the release of several new adult services programs for 2019.
Through a contract with RB Digital, the library has subscriptions to audio books and magazines. As of last summer, RB Digital announced that they were opening up video-streaming to libraries as well. These video-streaming services include access to The Great Courses and Acorn TV.
The Great Courses program is not new to Longmont Library. In August 2018, RB Digital gave the library a free one month trial. During the 31 day trial, the library had an average of 4 people a day, around 120 patrons, view The Great Courses online. Unfortunately, the library did not have the funds to support the program through the remainder of 2018.
Due to the popularity of the program, the library used funds that remained from the 2018 print budget to fund patron access to The Great Courses in 2019. Currently, patrons have access to around 150 of the most popular courses available, with more being added occasionally.
As a part of a package deal, and without an additional cost, RB Digital offered access to Acorn TV.
Acorn TV is an online streaming entertainment service featuring the best in television and films from Great Britain, with access to over 80 exclusive shows. "We knew that the British TV series are very popular at our library," says head of adult services at the Longmont Public Library, Pennie Burris. With that in mind, it was an easy choice to add the streaming service to the library's offerings.
In total, these two programs cost the Longmont Library $9,500. The programs charge based on the number of times patrons use the services. In order to keep to the budget, the library has asked the vendor to divide the number of times the programs are accessed evenly across 52 weeks for the 2019 year. Although limited, Burris anticipates that patrons will not encounter a delay in accessing these programs. Additionally, patrons are granted a week pass to these services.
"We have not run into people not being able to access it because they [the librarians] have done a good job figuring out what might our patrons need," states marketing and communications specialist Teresa Myers.
There is also an RB Digital app available on smart devices that allows you to stream these services.
Another new service this year is Pronunciator. It is a learning language service. There are over 80 languages available for patrons to learn including, Spanish, Latvian, Welsh, Hindi and Azerbaijani, among many others.
This service is not your typical "language on tape" style of learning. Patrons are invited to sign up for classes, download or stream audio lessons and participate in teacher-led conversation classes. Because of the teacher involvement in these courses, patrons can learn each language on a deeper level. Additionally, these courses target patrons of all ages.
For further conversation practice, Spanish or English learners can participate in the conversation groups, ¡Hablemos! and "Say Hello".
Pronunciator also offers ProCitizen courses, specifically designed for U.S. immigrants to succeed at the naturalization test. These courses are offered in multiple languages, not just Spanish.
Libraries across the Front Range are offering a "Book a Librarian" service, and Longmont adopted the concept at the beginning of 2019.
"What we are finding is that people either have quick questions that you can dispatch quickly or they come in with really complicated questions. We are also finding that we are getting people who need a lot of help at the reference desk and sometimes we don't have that time to really sit down with them. So this way we can actually have them come in, we know that we have a half hour set aside for them," says Burris.
The "Book a Librarian" service allows patrons the undivided time of a librarian to assist them with other library services or special projects such as learning how to research one's genealogy. Appointments can be made in 30-minute increments and can be made online or at the 2nd floor Information Desk.
This program also allows the library to staff the service desk while also tending to patrons with larger projects to research or learning how to access other library services.
The Longmont Public Library will reevaluate each of these services, as they do with all of their services, at the end of each year. The popularity of a service determines whether or not the library keeps the program the following year.
Last but not least, to alleviate the winter blues, the library is offering Wintertime Bingo. This is a challenge to patrons to do the items on the bingo card with a chance to win a prize with each bingo.
There is always something new happening at the Longmont Public Library and 2019 is starting off to be no exception to that rule.
