Using Your Library @ Home and @ Anywhere

The Questions:

1. It's 8:30 p.m. and your teen has just informed you that she needs 5 newspaper and magazine articles discussing global warming for her 1st period research paper, which is due tomorrow. All the libraries closed at 8. What can you do?


2. Your 8th grader can't understand his algebra homework - and neither can you! What can you do?


3. You have volunteered to host an exchange student from Japan for a month in January, and need to learn basic Japanese FAST! What can you do?


4. You want to find out whether experts think your company's healthy and would make a good investment for your stock options - what can you do?


5. You've been "downsized" and want to polish your resume and your interview skills so you can NAIL the next interview. What can you do?


6. You're stopping for lunch enroute to a faraway state and want to find the nearest Macdonald's for the kids' lunch. What can you do?

The answers to all these questions, believe it or not, are the same: use your library! Your library card is the key to information access wherever you are. We make information and services available online, by phone, and by text messages even when the library is closed, so you don't have to arrange your needs around our open hours.

The Answers:

1. Use our online magazine and newspaper databases - available 24/7 - to find full-text articles you can print and cite for that research paper. We have the Sacramento Bee as well as other newspapers, and over 5,000 online magazines.
2. On the Kids' and Teens' pages, students in grades 4-college can click Homework Help Now! to get help from credentialled tutors via live chat. Tutors can help with math, writing, social studies, and more!
3. Mango Languages provides an always-available, never-needs-to-be-returned language lab at home. You'll be fluent in Japanese in no time! Click the Mango link in the General Interests section of the database page.
4. Morningstar Online, in the Business & Personal Finance section on the Database Page, is the place to go for current, expert information about stocks, mutual funds, and industry information. Morningstar also provides free online tutorials for YOU, our public, in the use of this database.
5. JobNow, a new service, gives job-seekers tools to assess their interests, revise and polish resumes, get personal coaching on effective interview techniques, and links to career resources.
6. Info Quest: Txt4Nswrs - Use your cell phone to send your question to an Info Quest librarian. You will receive an answer in just a few minutes. Include the abbreviation SPL in your text, so the librarian who answers knows which library you belong to.

See? It's entirely possible to use the great resources your library provides without even stepping through the door. All it takes is an Internet connection and a library card.

Getting Carded

This afternoon, Central Library sent two librarians on a field trip to the Art Institute of California's new Sacramento campus. At the request of the Institute's librarian, we brought a laptop, a few promotional materials, and library cards, stealing a move on September's Library Card Sign-Up campaign. We were delighted to find that half the students and faculty that visited the school library already had library cards, but we signed up seven people for their first card!

We mentioned our broad database coverage, downloadable collections, the services we provide, and also our new Info Quest: txt 4 answers service. With schools gearing up to start around Labor Day, now is one of the best times to get or update your key to the free resources at your library!

Add To My Contacts

What's with the abstract art in the right sidebar? It's called a QR (quick response) code. It sends information to a cell phone equipped with a code reader. The Civil Librarian and Hapalibrararian have blogged about QR codes, speculating on potential uses in a public library setting. The Dover Town Library in Massachusetts featured QR codes in its summer reading program this year.

In some cases, the code will lead you to a web site; in others, it might send a message to a contact phone number. Or it can be coded to provide business card information, or ...

The QR code on this blog will offer to add the phone number for our new My Info Quest: text 4 answers service to your cell phone contacts, so you can text us the next time you have a burning question and get an answer in minutes from a librarian. (You can add it or decline it.)

If your camera phone is equipped with a data plan, and if you have acquired a code reader, just point your phone's camera at the code and take it away!

txt4answers

On the go? Got a question?

Sacramento Public Library is now offering a text reference service through My Info Quest. Anyone with a cell phone and a text messaging plan can send in a question and get a reply from a librarian in minutes!

It's this easy: text your question to 309-222-7740, adding the library code SPL to your message. Hours of service are Monday-Friday 6am-8pm and Saturday 7am-3pm Pacific Time.

No more pushing buttons trying to get through to a live person; no more waiting in the telephone hold queue burning up your cellphone minutes. No more do you need to be logged in to your e-mail ... just text your question to the librarians at My Info Quest and the answer will be sent to your phone in minutes.

Look for the Txt4nswrs logo on the library's web site, as well as flyers and wallet cards at all our branches.

On the go? Got a question? Txt the library!