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Toledo Lucas County Public Library – An Education
Destination
Special to The Truth
In 2015, the
Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) logged 3.1
million visits to its 20 locations and more than 1.3
million users to its website. With people using the
Library more than ever before; they are not only looking to
TLCPL for entertainment but also for educational materials
and resources.
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Local teen explores magazine and newspaper articles for
school project at Reynolds Corners Branch Library.
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“We’ve long
considered ourselves the ‘People’s University,’ and that has
never been more apparent than in the new resources and
technologies we are offering the community today,” says
Clyde Scoles, director. “Our mission is to inspire lifelong
learning and we aim to do that by continually expanding and
transforming our services to meet the needs of a more
tech-savvy public.”
To that end,
TLCPL’s more than 90 online resources and databases
make finding vetted educational quality materials easy for
students of all ages and best of all; these resources are
FREE with a library card. Most recently, the Library added
Lynda.com, an online learning company popular with young
adults offering thousands of video courses, and provided
access to African American newspapers and periodicals via
NewsBank.
In addition
to database and educational materials, customers readily use
the Library’s many public computers and high tech meeting
spaces. In 2015, visitors logged into TLCPL’s public
computers more than 810,000 times and 86,556
people used its meeting spaces.
The Library
also offers assistance for those interested in improving
their business, career, and financial knowledge. Last year,
more than 3,000 individuals benefitted from these
types of Library programs. New programs and resources are
continually being developed, particularly through its Living
Better Spending Smarter program, which can be found online
at
http://lbss.toledolibrary.org.
Ultimately,
the Library of today is a much different space than the
Library of the past. By embracing technology, TLCPL has
transformed itself into an educational hub, open to all.
It’s a space where customers can go to find pleasure in a
movie or novel as well as to further their education,
career, and financial independence.
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