By Dot Bergin
The Bedford Free Public Library offers several free services that you may not know about.
Did you know that you can download three free songs per week using the Library database Freegal? And they are yours to keep? Freegal is a free and legal downloadable music service offering a variety of music from recordings available from Sony Music Entertainment labels only, which include Artista, Columbia, RCA and more. The downloads are all in the MP3 format with no digital rights management (DRM) issues. This service will work with any MP3 player, including the iPod, can be loaded into iTunes; and works on both PCs and Macs.
Freegal is but one of the more than 60 free databases on an array of subjects now available to Library patrons. There are databases from A to W covering a wealth of subject areas, yours to access from any internet device. As Library Director Richard Callaghan explained at the April 9 Trustees meeting, licenses for this treasury of information/entertainment are funded partly by the state and partly by the Library. With a couple of exceptions, all can be accessed from your home or wherever you are using an internet device. (The two exceptions, which may be accessed only within the Library, are the genealogy database Ancestry and Consumer Reports. These restrictions are imposed by the publishers, not by the Library.)
If you have a Kindle or other book reader, a smart phone, or a tablet you can download books onto your reader via the OverDrive database. Once you log in to the database collection using your Minuteman Library card number, there is a helpful video explaining how to use OverDrive (the digital media catalog), which provides popular audiobooks and eBooks for users to download.
Need to learn the basics of a foreign language before heading out on a trip? Click on Mango, a language learning database designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start, immersing you in real, everyday conversations. Concerned about your retirement portfolio? Investors can tap into the wealth of information available through the Morningstar Investment Resource Center.
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