digital services

12 13, 2018

Library cards for Lake Shore Compact students

By admin|2018-12-13T06:00:16-05:00December 13, 2018|

One of the Career Technical Education students shows off his new Mentor Public Library card.

We spent a wonderful morning giving Mentor Public Library cards to about 175 Career Technical Education students this Tuesday at Mentor Schools’ Paradigm building.

The students were from the MBA, Allied Health and Graphic Design & Video Production tracks. They all use lynda.com, an online software training database, to help them with their studies. And the school districts pay so the students can access it.

Recently, Lynda.com became one of the dozens of databases you can use for free with your library card. That means the students and schools can access it for free. All the students need is a library card.

We also had the opportunity to show the students the ebooks, digital magazines, streaming music and video, and other online resources they can use with their Mentor Public Library Card.

This is just the beginning of the process. However, by putting library cards in every Mentor High School students’ hands, we can save the school district $37,500 over the next five years.

This is just one of the ways that Mentor Schools and Mentor Public Library have partnered to (one) save the community money, (two) share resources and (three) make those resources available to you.

Just this year, we opened Mentor High School’s renovated school library — now known as The HUB — to the public. It’s open to everyone for study, quiet tutoring and more from 3 to 8 p.m. every Monday through Wednesday. We also host a wide variety of programs there each week.

Moreover, you now use The HUB’s state-of-the-art makerspace!

It contains a:

Laser Engraver
Vinyl Cutter
T-Shirt Press
Large Format Printer
Green Screen Studio
Spiral Binder
Button Maker
3D Pens
Sticker Printer
and Mini Laminator

You can use any or all of these machines to make the project of your dreams. You don’t need to be a student at Mentor High School or even a resident of Mentor. All you need is a Mentor Public Library card in good standing. For more information, visit our makerspace page.

We’re grateful for our friends at Mentor Schools. Our partnership with them has made our library card more valuable than ever.

04 1, 2018

Master online resources with Niche Academy

By admin|2018-04-01T06:00:17-04:00April 1, 2018|

We offer a dizzying amount of tools online: databases for research; online classes; digital resources where you can read eBooks and magazines, listen to music and audiobooks, and watch videos.

It can be confusing to find the resources you want and learn how to use them—intimidating even. So we’re offering a new service, Niche Academy, that teaches you how to use all of them. Niche Academy offers short video tutorials that you can watch for free and at your convenience. Learn how to:

Borrow and read eBooks and digital magazines with OverDrive, Libby, Cloud Library and Flipster
stream music, television shows, documentaries and movies with Freegal, Hoopla and Kanopy
use library databases like Ancestry.com, Consumer Reports, Select Reads and Legal Forms
take free online classes with Gale Courses.

Niche Academy also offers videos that explain how to use online tools like Gmail, Goodreads and social media, including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. All of these video tutorials are available for free. You can watch as many as you like at mentorpl.org/niche.

01 20, 2018

Watch some of the world’s best films with Kanopy & your library card

By admin|2018-01-20T06:00:52-05:00January 20, 2018|

You can stream some of the greatest films ever made for free.

All you need is your library card and our newest digital service, Kanopy.

Kanopy has a collection of more than 30,000 films, including award-winning movies and documentaries from all over the globe.

And you can watch 10 of them each month on your favorite device—computer, tablet, phone, Apple TV, Chromecast or Roku—for free. Indulge your inner cinephile with masterpieces by Akira Kurosawa, Greta Gerwig, Charlie Chaplin, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles and more.

Kanopy also has an excellent collection of animated story books and educational kids shows for children.

You can watch online or use Kanopy’s app, which is available for free at the Apple and Google Play stores.

Your library card also gives you access to thousands of films and TV shows via Hoopla.

So start watching. It’s like having a world-class film festival, tailored to your personal interests, at your beck and call. For free.

12 9, 2017

Check out new magazines whenever you want with Flipster

By admin|2017-12-09T06:00:35-05:00December 9, 2017|

You can now access dozens of popular magazines whenever you want and for free.

All you need is a smart device—like a tablet, computer or smartphone—a Mentor Public Library card, and the library’s newest digital service, Flipster.

You can check out both new and back issues of 56 different magazines with Flipster, including People, Atlantic, Times, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, Highlights, New Yorker, Money, Redbook, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, Vogue and Teen Vogue, Wired, Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Zoobooks, and Vanity Fair.

There are two ways you can borrow magazines using Flipster:

online with its website
via the Flipster app, which is available for free on the Google Play and iTunes App stores. All you’ll need to sign in is your library card number.

Otherwise, start browsing. Your favorite magazines are now at your beck and call.

11 22, 2016

25 Classic R&B/Soul Albums on Freegal

By admin|2016-11-22T06:00:12-05:00November 22, 2016|

Do you like good music—some sweet soul music?

Want to listen to some of the best R&B music ever made without spending money on iTunes, Spotify or Tidal?

Try Freegal. It lets you download DRM-free mp3s of your favorite songs. Moreover, once you download a song, you can keep the mp3 forever. Put it on your phone, your computer, your iPod–wherever you want. It’s yours. You can download up to five songs a week.

You also get unlimited streaming, if you prefer that.

And it’s free with your library card.

Here are 25 of our favorite R&B albums you can start downloading right now from Freegal:

1. Earth, Wind & Fire: That’s the Way of the World

Earth, Wind & Fire had a real claim to Best Band in the World in the mid-1970s, and this is them at their absolute best. “Shining Star” is them at their funkiest, “Reasons” is them at their most moving, and the title track still works as the band’s mission statement more than 40 years later.

When you’re done downloading That’s the Way of the World, check of the band’s live album, Gratitude.

2. Whitney Houston: Whitney

Whitney Houston had George Foreman’s propensity for naming things after herself. Hence, her albums Whitney and Whitney Houston. Which one you prefer comes down to taste. One album has “I Wanna Dance (with Someone who Loves Me)” and the other has “How Will I Know.” You should have both.

3. Babyface: Unplugged

Babyface wrote every R&B song that you love from the 90s. He sings them here with the help of some ridiculously talented friends. (Seriously, he opens the concert with Eric Clapton and closes it with Stevie Wonder.)

4. Mariah Carey: Daydream

Mariah Carey’s made a lot of hits, but there’s a good chance that your favorite Mariah song is on Daydream: “Always Be My Baby,” “Under the Stars,” “One Sweet Day,” and “Fantasy”—not the “Fantasy Remix” though, but you can get that for free too.

5. Usher: Confessions

It’s been long enough. It’s safe to listen to “Yeah!” again.

6. Michael Jackson: Off the Wall

You probably already own Thriller and Bad. Go back to that incendiary moment just before Michael Jackson became the most famous person on the planet.

7. The Jacksons: Destiny

Want a hot take? Michael Jackson didn’t make his best jam with Quincy Jones or even while he was on Motown.

Jackson never jammed harder than on “Blame it on the Boogie.” Listen for free and see if you agree.

8. Toni Braxton: Secrets

If you’re slow-jam tape doesn’t have “You’re Makin’ Me High,” then you need to fix that problem immediately.

9. Sade: The Best of Sade

Speaking of slow jams…

10. T-Pain: Happy Hour—The Best of T-Pain

Didn’t like T-Pain when he was on the radio every six minutes? Go back. He’s better than you remember. He had a knack for melody that no amount of autotune can dilute.

11. Beyonce: Dangerously in Love

Queen B’s “Crazy in Love” is still four minutes of audio adrenaline.

12. The O’Jays: Backstabbers

“Back Stabbers” and “Love Train” are the big hits, but this whole album exemplies the Gamble-Huff soul sound at its zenith.

13. John Legend: Love in the Future

John Legend quietly keeps getting better and better.

14. Aaliyah: Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number

The good news: Aaliyah’s debut is as good as you remember. The bad news: This will just make you miss her more.

15. D’Angelo & the Vanguard: Black Messiah

We all assumed that D’Angelo was going to go the way of Lauryn Hill, Yuri Norstein, or any other tortured artist who never quite fulfilled their promise. Then he reappeared with one of the best albums of the year.

16. Aretha Franklin: Sings the Great Diva Classics

Aretha Franklin’s version of “Rolling in the Deep” reminded Adele who had the throne first.

17: Luther Vandross: Never Too Much

Dance to “Never too Much,” then cry to “A House Is not a Home.”

18: Ray Charles: Jazz Masters Deluxe Collection

Ray Charles is so incredible that Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award for imitating him.

19: Jamie Foxx: Unpredictab le

Speaking of which, this and Ray were the one-two punch that announced Jamie Foxx was so much more than a funnyman.

19: Alicia Keys: The Diary of Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys gets plaintive on “You Don’t Know my Name,” fierce on “Karma,” and soulful on “If I Ain’t Got You.”

21: Az Yet: Az Yet

Babyface decided to build his own Boyz II Men. He got close, at least with “Last Night.”

22. Ginuwine: …The Bachelor

And now you have “Pony” stuck in your head.

23. The Delfonics: La-La Means I Love You

The Delfonics don’t get mentioned as often as The Temptations or Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes; but “Ready or Not,” “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind this Time” and the title track are stone-cold classics.

24: Chris Brown: Royalty

Sure, I guess.

25: Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

OK, Unplugged, the abandoned Fugees reunion, and those occasional soundtrack loosies never quite sated our thirst for more Lauryn Hill, but Miseducation is still perfect.

Other Freegal playlists: