Click here to learn a new language! On April 9, the American Library Association won a historic victory vs. the Justice Department in securing congressionally appropriated funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Now that this lengthy legal battle has been hopefully settled, statewide database access has been restored. Transparent Language is the resource I am most excited about. It is a much more robust and thorough language learning resource than the alternatives we have offered in the past and is highly customizable in language variety, dialect, and expertise level (where you want to drop in). When you first visit from our library’s resource page (or the link above), you will be asked to create an account if you want to save your progress. You can use any credentials you want–it doesn’t have to be your library card–so make it something you can remember easily.
There are a lot of other useful research tools in our database offerings as well. Five years ago, I would have guessed they were fading into obsolescence as google search was becoming more powerful, reliable, and accessible. I honestly thought the need for professionally created and curated data sources was drying up. Boy, was I wrong. As the reliability of information we can find online continues to crater, the need for these resources is higher than ever. If you want a place to conduct searches for content without an algorithm evaluating your query and directing you to the online content most likely to reinforced your biases and sell you things, the libraries offer this.
Here is an updated view of Douglas Undivided. Have you colored a piece yet? This isn’t just for kids, folks. Everyone in Douglas is invited to participate. Come get a piece of the action!
Thanks for Reading,
Justin Snook