What’s something you love about the library? A popular answer might be the books, but libraries now-a-days offer so much more! You can prepare for important tests, learn new skill sets, read a newspaper, and stream music all from the comfort of your home! You can even use library services without going to a branch! 

Interested in learning how? Continue reading to learn about five fun features of the library!

Peterson’s Test and Career Prep provides customers the opportunity to improve their test scores, find a college, explore careers, and use vocational test preps. Peterson’s Test Prep can be found under the Research and Learn.

  • Improve Your Score: Find resources to help you improve your test scores from high school tests to international tests. Some of the tests include: Microsoft Office Tutorials, ACT & SAT, GRE, and U.S. Citizenship.
  • Find a College: Research different colleges and universities, scholarships, financial aid, etc. It also has a college planning center where students and parents can begin planning for college as early as 9th grade!
  • Explore Careers: Find career tools that every working professional can use. Whether you’re looking for a career or starting a new one, this center provides resources that can help you. For example, there’s a resource that’ll help you create a resume. You can also create an account (email not required, but highly recommended) to search for jobs and save your progress!
  • Vocational Test Prep: Customers interested in taking vocational tests can find resources to help them prepare. Some of the vocations included are: accountant/auditor, cosmetology, medical/nursing, military, real estate, and more.

If you’re interested in learning a new skill to enhance your resume or create a business from scratch, LinkedIn Learning is your one stop shop for training! All you have to do is click on LinkedIn Learning under the Research & Learning tab on the CCPL homepage and register for an account with your library card (Kids, Teens, and online library cards are applicable). After that, you’ll gain access to an abundance of free videos on various topics/skills.

Did you know you could read the Washington Post online from our website for free? Under the Read, Watch, & Listen tab on our homepage, you’ll see a link for the Washington Post under the Read column. There’s two ways you can access the newspaper: 1) There’s a link you can use when you’re in a Charles County library on the public computers or Wi-Fi and it’ll automatically let you access the free resource. 2) You can use the link for off-site access and register an account with the Washington Post. It’ll give you 7 days worth of access. On the 8th day, users will have to use the offsite access link provided on the CCPL website to gain another 7 days free of access. You don’t have to pay for it.

This app is for all the music lovers out there. If you spend hours listening to music, you might be interested in using Freegal. This is an app that gives customers access to free music daily. You can listen to up to 3 hours of music daily and download 3 songs per week to keep forever. Not only does it give you the ability to listen to songs, but you can also listen to audiobooks, watch music videos, and create your own playlists. You can download Freegal in the apple or android app stores.

Mobile Library Services

Last, but not least, did you know that we have a mobile library that offers services in our community? Some services include: FREE printing & copying (limit of 20 pages for color OR black & white pages), FREE Wi-Fi access (approx. 100 ft radius from the vehicle), library card services, and you can even check-out mobile hotspots (while supplies are available). You can find the location of the Mobile Library by checking out our events calendar and selecting the “Mobile Library Branch” from the location section. Check out Mobile Library for more information.

Thanks for Celebrating with Us!

Libraries have come a long way and continue to grow and change to best fit our needs. Hopefully you found a new thing to love about the library! To discover more marvelous things to love about the library, please visit our Web site at http://ccplonline.org/