If You Can Read, You Can Do Anything

     If she told me once, my mother told me a hundred times, “If you can read, you can do anything.”  Sure enough, I figured out how to crochet by reading a book.  Books taught me how to refinish furniture, replace the innards of my toilet tank, and housebreak a dog.  Books can instruct or entertain.  They can introduce us to new world’s or help us make better sense of the one we are in.  Whenever I want a book, I can get it for free at the county library. 

http://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/

     I have heard that people tend to ignore wonderful things in their own back yards.  Some lifelong New Yorkers have never visited the Statue of Liberty.  Some Philadelphians have never seen the Liberty Bell.  How many county residents are without a library card?  Do people know the vast array of services, besides loaning books, that the library offers?

     It isn't just about shelves full of books.  The library subscribes to dozens of newspapers and magazines.  They have large print books for the visually impaired and books on CD's.  If it pinches the pocketbook to shell out $9.00 for a movie ticket, you can borrow movies on DVD.  There are also entire TV series, in case you want to have an "Upstairs, Downstairs" or "Nip/Tuck" marathon.  No computer?  The library has lots of them in the Technology Lab.  Just grab a seat and surf the net.  Here is an incomplete list of other library services:

Adult literacy programs

Legal and geneology research materials

Copy, fax, and mail services

Job resources 

Notary services

Tax assistance

Free, legal music downloads

Museum pass program - Check out the museum pass on your library card, and you get to go to several local museums for free.  You even get a discount at the souvenir shop! 

Inter-library loan - In the rare even that the library doesn't have the book you want, they'll get it from another library for the paltry sum of $1.00.  I wanted to read Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan series.  The library found one of the books, an  edition printed in the 1930's, at a library in Wisconsin.  

Classes - There are classes for everyone from 12 month old babies to senior citizens.  There are crafts for children and adults.  I'm teaching knitting at the Cinnaminson Library branch.  I enjoy the rubber stamping and paper crafting classes at the Bordentown branch.  There are story hours for kids, magic shows, and parties.  If you lack computer skills, they have classes for that.  You can even play Wii.  

Bookmobile - No car?  No problem.  The library will come to you.  The Bookmobile regularly visit Burlington County communities.  Go online or call for the schedule.

Amphitheater - Free weekly concerts from June through September. 

     It might seem like the whole world has internet, Nook, and Kindle, but they don't.  What we all have is the local library.  It's the great equalizer.  Use it for all it's worth.