The following is a guest post about what a library has to offer by Suba.  Suba blogs at Wealth Informatics which strives to provide information empowering debt reduction, financial planning, informed consumerism, savvy investing, fun & frugal living leading to financial freedom.  I highly suggest checking out Wealth Informatics – Suba is a force of nature with her detailed posts!

During lunch with colleagues this past week, somehow the conversation meandered toward public libraries.  I was surprised to hear that most of the people at the table had hardly ever been to the public library, and most of them just assumed that the popular books would all be checked out and that they would have to wait forever to borrow them.  While this might be true for some of the more popular titles, it got me thinking of all the non-book items I borrow from the library.  Here is a smattering of different library resources that I have, over the years, used/checked out.

Library Resources for Everybody

• Learn a new language – About a year ago, DH and I decided that we were not going to let our brain cells die without a fight.  Since learning a new language is said to be one of the activities that causes many areas of the brain to fire simultaneously, we decided to learn Mandarin Chinese.  Of course, you could question how many brain cells we had left over in the first place for trying to tackle a language so alien to anything we know so far, but hey, as they say, aim for the stars, you might reach the treetop.  Anyhoo, knowing that we have a track record for starting with gusto but then kind of letting things peter off once life intervenes, we didn’t want to spend a boatload of money hiring a tutor or buying expensive software.  Local public library to the rescue!  Turns out they have an online login to the Mango language package that allows library patrons to listen and learn the lessons online.  Great!  Maybe it was the fact that we didn’t feel pressure to have to learn (which we would have if we had spent a lot of money), but we are still taking the lessons. Who knows maybe I will start a Chinese version of my blog soon!
• Kill-a-watt – When I lived in the east coast, my library used to have a few of these for the patrons to borrow. Very useful and as you need to use them just once to figure out the power consumption, it is a great money saving borrow.
• State park passes – Admittedly this is a rarity because to my knowledge, the entire Los Angeles public library system has 4 state park passes.  But plan early enough and you can save a bundle when you go camping.
• Museum passes – Similar to the state park passes but with much more availability. A lot of local museums partner with the public library to make museum passes available for checkout. You can usually keep them for a week.
• Live entertainment – I have attended poetry recitations, movie screenings and live music from local musicians all for free.  These events are sometimes on weekday evenings but mainly on the weekends.
• Movie rentals – Speaking of movies, can you beat the option of borrowing a movie for an entire week for no charge??  Don’t think so.  Agreed you may not get the DVD on the day it is released but then a little patience goes a long way. 
• Audio books – In terms of other media, both DH and I drive a lot and manage to do a lot of our “reading” via audio books.  We used to subscribe to an audio book mail service (like Netflix for movies), but why pay $40 a month when we can get a lot of audiobooks from the library – especially given the fact that you can request anything from any library within the same “system” as your library.  So the selection is virtually unlimited if you use a library that is part of the system of some large city.
• Movie Screenings - Libraries have movie nights. Bring a blanket, popcorn and your family to have a fun family movie night.
• Book clubs - I find that the book clubs are great way to find out about books you may not have heard of in genres that you like.  Plus since the book club is affiliated with the library, you know they will have that book available. 
• Courses & Seminars - There have been a few different seminars that I have attended on saving for retirement, investing basics, etc.  Given that these are free, I wasn’t expecting much but was pleasantly surprised.  The speakers were all from financial firms who do this stuff everyday and there was plenty of interaction and opportunities to ask questions on topics that might otherwise be hard to find on the internet.
• Notary public services - Very cheap notary services and free for senior citizens.

Library Resources for Kids

There are a number of options available to help children.  It both helps them and gives you a few hours of peace and quiet to catch your breath. 

• Drama Club - Big hit especially in Southern California where everyone wants to be an actor/actress.
• Homework Help -  For all those subjects you hated as a kid but have to now help your little ones out with.
• Story time - During story hour (available for kids in different age groups), the librarian leads the kids in song and dance and reads several books.
• Summer Reading - Great way to improve kids reading skills over the summer. It is even more fun with prizes, entertainment, story times, music and, of course, lots of great books! And free too!
• Art/Craft classes - Simple arts and crafts classes for free or have very discounted rates. Sometimes you can get the supplies for very cheap as well.

Other Library Resources

Some of the other services that I know are available but have not used personally are -

• Meeting Rooms that can be reserved along with free wifi.
• Volunteer Reading Programs for visually challenged and seniors.
• Message Boards where people in the community put up items they have that can be bartered or borrowed.
• Cake Pans and Home Improvement Tools  – I was tickled by the fact that public libraries in Iowa allow patrons to borrow cake pans!!  I also read that the Berkeley library allows you to borrow tools and they seem to be pretty well stocked.  When I mentioned this to DH, he immediately wanted to move to that neighborhood!

So the next time you need something temporarily, give your local library a shot.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

Crystal’s Comments:  I have no idea if our local library offers all of this, but I know it has a lot.  I personally love downloading audio books for my commute and to listen to at work.  I also truly appreciate inter-library lending and the fact I can request books I want from home.  When I was a kid, I could not get enough of summer reading programs and spent one whole summer polishing off all of Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown.

Do you use your local library?  What do you enjoy most about it?