As we adjust our print reference collection to suit the needs of the community, monies open up that we can spend on resources our patrons are excited to use - specifically ten seats in our building for Lynda.com and the full Adobe Creative Suite in our new Digital Media Lab.
Our patrons are looking for services too expensive to purchase in a home setting and the skills to use creative digital products. We have discovered another service we can provide.David Murphy was able to give a practical class on buying and selling on Ebay last night using our subscription to Lynda.com as well as the Digital Media Lab and his own experience on Ebay. Suzanne Gunnerson held a similar class in July on mastering the Windows 8 operating system.
By using video classes, we can learn together, stop the video, answer questions, restart, jump ahead, or re-watch an exercise we might not have fully understood. We find that our patrons enjoy getting an overview togther with others and THEN coming back to the library to watch the course more slowly and in greater depth on teir own.
In September, we plan to host introductory course on a number of Adobe products: Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Muse, and Dreamweaver.In fact, if a patron wants to acquire a highly coveted Adobe Certification on a particular Adobe software product, they need only be diligent enough to take the entire Lynda.com course for free at the library and then sign up with Adobe to take their certification exam, which costs a pretty penny itself, but gives a person an amazing credential for their resume. They can learn at their own speed and take the exam if and when they are ready. All done by maximizing their available resources at the public library.
This is a great way we have found to be resource to our patrons: purchasing teaching tools, expensive software suites, and equipment such as professional scanner and conversion software so they can convert VHS to DVD, scan their precious family photos and documents, learn to start an online business, the list goes on and on!
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