Your Public Library May Be More Technical Than You Think
2 min read
A few weekends ago I took my young 5-year-old to get his library card at our local public library. Now that he is reading we are making a point to get to the library on a regular basis and have him read a few books a week. Personally I haven’t stepped foot in a public library since college, which was almost 15 years ago. My reading has been internet based or bookstore purchases. However when I was signing the papers to get our cards a little pamphlet stuck out and caught my eye. Zinio, the digital magazine folks. I have seen Zinio before, they have a magazine app for all the devices but I never looked much more into it because frankly the subscription prices were hard to swallow. If I am going to get a subscription I want to feel the paper in my hands and the magazines I have read digitally have turned me away from them.
I pulled out the small cardboard print and right on the top it says ‘The World’s Largest Newsstand Is Now Available At Our Library!’ and at the bottom there was a website. After we found a few books for the week we left and as soon as I got home I checked out the site. What I found amazed me. Using my new library card to access out library’s site they had a large selection of full magazines available to ‘check out’. I downloaded the Zinio app for my iPad, setup an account and linked it with my library’s account (which was very easy). As I browsed when I hit the checkout link they appeared on my iPad for download. Wonderful.
Here’s a list of the magazines that I have read thus far, the total list changes but averages around 150 titles –
- Apple Magazine
- Car and Driver
- Digital Photo Pro
- Economist
- ESPN The Magazine
- Esquire
- Field & Stream
- Games
- Forbes
- iPhone Life
- Macworld
- Men’s Fitness
- Men’s Health
- Men’s Journal
- Newsweek
- PCWorld
- Popular Mechanics
- Popular Science
- Popular Photography
- Rolling Stone
Those are just a select few of the biggest magazines available. When you take a look at these and figure out the standard subscription costs it’s an expensive venture. Right under my nose in a tax payer supported resource is a business deal that provides these materials, digitally, mobile at no additional cost to me…besides my taxes I already paid.
Check out your local library and see what they have to offer. In the world of every expanding mobility, physically going to a library to check out something physical is going away. From magazines to e-book checkouts, local library’s are more technologically up to date than you may realize.
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Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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