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-A A +A Get Free Services
You may borrow up to 30 items at a time. Use our books and DVDs for up to 4 weeks. Why not try the wonderful free services of the Library? Descriptions of them follow below (in alphabetical order, of course—we’re a library after all). Click on any of the headings to the left to get right to what you’re looking for.
eBooks
It’s not just about Kindle, Amazon! eBooks are popping up all over. In fact, we’ve offered them at the Library for quite awhile now.
The Library offers you access to thousands of eBooks and audiobooks through Your Library Without Walls, a provincially-managed but Library-funded resource.
The Library neither owns nor maintains the Your Library Without Walls website and we know that sometimes it can be a challenge to navigate. That’s why we’ve created eBooks 101, a step-by-step guide to borrowing eBooks and audiobooks. If you still need help getting started after following these steps, just contact the Library.
The eBooks and audiobooks available through Your Library Without Walls show up as electronic resources in our catalogue. You can also borrow eBooks from the Library by simply borrowing one of our eReaders. To learn more about that, click here.
eReaders Available Here!
You can now borrow Kindle eReaders from the Library.
We have Amazon Kindles loaded up with popular and critically acclaimed eBook titles. Check out one for up to 2 weeks and experience eBooks for yourself. The Kindles are loaded up by genre-- each has either fiction, non-fiction, or mysteries.
If you are age 13 or older you just need your Library card to borrow or place a hold on one of the Kindles.
More details about this pilot program are published on a Kindle FAQ sheet available at the Service Desk or you can read it by clicking here.
Learn a Language - Rosetta Stone
Learning a new language... there are so many reasons you might want to do this--your life circumstances, your personal goals or interest in the world around you. If you have a Library card, you can use a premier language learning program, Rosetta Stone TOTALe. With this web-based product you can choose from 30 languages and progress at your own speed.
Audio Books
If you want to listen to recorded books, you can check them out from the Library where we have a very nice collection. If you want access to a vast collection of audio books that you can download and listen to, why not try Library to Go? You can “borrow” any title you like to listen to on your home computer or personal digital assistant (PDA). Each title has a check out period after which it is de-activated.
Just click on the link below and follow the instructions or contact the Library if you need help getting started.
Book Club Sets
Book Club borrowing made easy! Now you can get enough copies for all your members! These sets are all newer titles and can be borrowed free of charge through InterLibrary Loan. Your book club members can keep them for five weeks, and the sets can be reserved in advance. This valuable resource is made available through IslandLink Library Federation in cooperation with North Coast, North East, and Kootenay Library Federations.
Click here to see a list of available Book Club Sets
If you would like to borrow or reserve one of these sets,
Books by Mail
Do you know anyone who needs Books by Mail? Tell them about this new Library service.
Anyone who is sick, disabled or who just can't get to the Library easily can register with us to receive books through the mail. It's available to anyone in our service
Free Borrowing!
You may borrow up to 30 items at a time. Use our books for up to 4 weeks. You may borrow newer books, DVDs and everything else for up to 2 weeks. Return your materials on time and in good condition to avoid fines and charges. To learn about fines and other potential charges, see our Schedule of Charges. You can learn more about all this by reading the Board’s Borrowing Policies.
If you need to renew your books you can do this in person at our Service Desk, by phoning or emailing us or by using My Account online. You need to do this before the due date of whatever you’ve borrowed in order to avoid fines.
Free Computer Classes at the Library
Did you know that the Library offers free computer classes? Every two weeks we offer a different class at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Learn how to use the Internet, email, basic word processing or just get an introduction to computers. Often the people who attend these sessions are seniors who just never needed to use computers but now would like to so they can connect with their families, sort out travel arrangements and find out all sorts of useful information. Phone the Library at 604-485-4796 to sign up as space is limited. Consult our Events Calendar to see when these classes are offered as well as all the neat stuff the Library has coming up.
Get a Library Card
It’s easy to get a card. Just come to the Library with 2 pieces of Identification – one must have your current address on it. Then, if you live in the Powell River Regional District (including the City of Powell River), we’ll issue you a free card on the spot.
If you live outside the Powell River Regional District, you may
Interlibrary Loans
How cool is this? Your Powell River Public Library card gets you access to book collections all over BC (and even beyond, on occasion) through the Interlibrary Loan program. This means that if we don’t have what you want, you can ask us to get it for you from another library or you can order it yourself from your home computer using a service called Outlook Online (not to be confused with Microsoft Outlook—why do they do these things?). Read on for some pointers on Using Outlook Online.
If you are not comfortable using Outlook Online, you can ask us to borrow an item for you by phoning us, sending us an email or stopping by the service desk by the Library.
Library Offers Travelling Storytimes
Did you know that we regularly travel around Powell River with a road show edition of our Storytime programs? Currently we visit many daycare centres and at least one Powell River Association for Community Living (PRACL) venue as well. This is the same high quality Storytime that parents take their children to at the Library.
If you want Storytime to come to you, please call the Library at 604-485-4796.
Listen To Music
It’s like having your own personal music CD collection. Except this one has more than 70,000 CDs in it. It sounds almost too good to be true, but the Powell River Public Library offers free access to the Naxos Music Library. Up to 5 simultaneous users of the service can listen anywhere they have a computer and speakers or headphones.
Parent-Child Mother Goose Program
From time to time we offer Parent-Child Mother Goose Programs through the Library. When we do we'll post information in our Events Calendar.
The Parent-Child Mother Goose Program® is a group experience for parents and their babies and young children which focuses on the pleasure and power of using rhymes, songs, and stories together. Parents gain skills and confidence which can enable them to create positive family patterns during their children's crucial early years, and give their children healthy early experiences with language and communication.
Learn more about this great program here.
Public Computers At The Library
Check your email, use office software, or get some information! It's free to use the computers at the Library. You may book half-hour sessions to a maximum of one hour per day at the Service Desk or by phoning the Library at 604-485-4796. You may print on the Library's printer for $.15/page. Remember to pay for these prints at the Service Desk.
Special Services
Read about some special services that we provide to you.
Use BC OneCard to Borrow Materials
If you are visiting another Library in BC, you may borrow books from that Library and return them to us if it’s convenient. The BC OneCard program is paid for by the province and participating BC libraries. Have a read through these frequently asked questions about BC OneCard for more information.
