Today’s post comes to us from Jason, who shares his tips for saving money by utilizing your local library!
About Jason:
Jason Fisher writes for Improve The Quality and has been practicing a simpler more frugal lifestyle for several years.
If you are fortunate enough to live in an area with a good library like we do, you have great resource you may not have completely utilized. There are a ton of great ways to use the Library that most people don’t think of.
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Kids Video’s – One of our greatest concerns when we cut our cable was kids shows. Although I hate the TV as a baby sitter is was nice to have out DVR with tons of kids shows for my daughter when she wanted one.
Most libraries have a ton of Kids DVDs, we get a few each week and since we all know kids never get tired of the same stuff, it works out very well.
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Books on CD – Most people claim to not have enough time to read but if you are like me books on CD are a great way to redeem your commute or any time you have where you can listen, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn etc. Try a few out though, the reader makes all the difference. I have had great books destroyed by a horrible reader (some authors just shouldn’t read their own books).
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Children’s Story Time – Our library has a great little class for different age groups. They get together and sing songs read a story and meet new friends. You don’t have to pay for a kids club or other special play school.
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Meeting rooms – If you ever have to schedule a meeting but don’t want to spend money many libraries have rooms of different sized that you can reserver for little or no cost. Much less than renting a conference room in a hotel. And our library is a Wi-Fi hot spot so that helps when you are doing meeting.
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Learning Curriculum – Ever wanted to try Rosetta Stone software to see if it is really all it is cracked up to be? Our library has it, hooked on phonics or many other expensive programs. Check your local library, if they can’t get it for you odds are they can get it from another branch as most libraries work together to expand their catalogs. Again it is no extra cost to you (your taxes already paid for it)
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Home School Groups – If you are like us, interested in home schooling there are support groups that meet at the library to work together. You may just find someone who is better at algebra than you are and can help you child though a tough chapter.
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After school Homework Programs – If you don’t home school but you do work your child can get help from tutor at some libraries while giving them time to focus on their work
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Used book sales – Often times the libraries get rid of old books that do not circulate well by selling them off cheap. Our daughter has gotten a good deal of books for less than a dollar.
You never know what your Library may have in store for you until you look into it. Check it out because it is more than just some old dusty books.
Hello,I have a question about fair dnliaeg in Canada. I work at a cultural institution that holds several film-related archival collections. We often hold exhibitions that include these items and we do our best to acquire permissions from the copyright holders in advance. The question I have is about objects that are created during the production of a film (for example props or architectural set drawings). I thought that the moral rights holder would be the film production company that hired the artist to do the work. However after reading one of the items in your Myths about Canadian Copyright Law post I am not sure if that is correct: MYTH: Employers are considered the authors of the works produced by their employees. Works created in the course of employment during the course of an employee’s duties belong to the employer. However, the author/employee remains the author of the work. Duration of protection of the work is determined by the employee/author’s life, and the employee retains the moral rights in such works.Does this mean that years after the employee has been employed by the company that they retain the moral rights of the art work they produced? Or is it still held by the company that produced the film, or the company that holds the rights to the film?Thanks,Melissa