National Library Week 2014: Public Libraries Have Gone Digital

In the United States, this week is National Library Week 2014. An entire week devoted to the smells, sights and love book collections! However, you are a student, learning coach, parent or teacher at the K12 International Academy; therefore, you might not have access to a physical library…

The distinct musty smell of the Hayden Burns Library in downtown Jacksonville takes me back to my middle school days when I was homeschooling. Indeed, my mom, and teacher, gave me an assignment to research Arthurian Legend.  I remember driving up to that super mod 1960’s building that held me captive for so many hours of my childhood and youth, and knowing that I would learn so much while reading, researching, and devouring books about King Arthur.  Those books helped me create replicas of castles to scale, write historical folklore research reports and become engrossed in the ideas of kings, swords and round tables. These days, the good news is, you don’t have to live in amazing cities with amazing libraries to have access to books from around the globe! Libraries are at your fingertips!

Have you had a chance to check out Google Books? Yes, Google has an amazing collection of books that are available for download or your on-screen viewing pleasure.   I know they are a company, but Google is offering full length books that are in the public domain and other library search services for free! By simple pressing a few keys on your computer you too can have the stories of King Arthur.

The US Library of Congress also has a great collection of works that you can access. Specifically, I love that you can find videos. The digital collection makes an excellent source for historical research papers or even historical legend papers!

Lastly, a great audio library is Librivox. It’s an awesome collection of free public domain books that have been audio recorded by readers like you and me! If you want to take your reading experience about Arthurian Legend even further, listen to, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court” by Mark Twain.

Just so you know, you don’t have to only search for books about King Arthur. Many of your “select a novel” choices in the K12 curriculum and your other favorite novels can be found by simply searching digital library sites.

Follow along during National Library Week 2014 with hashtags: #nlw14 and #liveschange

Image by MySAPL/CC 2.0