Tech Savvy Guest: Reconnect With Your Local Library- Tips from Karen Waters

Today’s guest post is from Karen Waters. Karen is a technical project manager who is passionate about work/life balance. With three kids, a husband, and a full-time job, her life demands technology to maintain equilibrium. She uses her technical skills to help promote efficiencies that allow her to flourish in her career while being the best mom she can. Today she shares some resources that your local library may have.

In our quest to be technically savvy, we often overlook our trusty local library. After all, they just have a bunch of hard copy books, right? Wrong! Our local libraries have improved with technology just like everything else!

Here are some appealing things you may find at your library’s website:

• Free online audio books- Our library offers a free service called Tumblebooks that has a wide variety of books for all ages. They even offer comprehension quizzes at the end of the reading.

• Online homework help- Some libraries offer online homework chats with experienced educators ready to help prevent an evening meltdown.

• Online access to their catalog- Nothing is more frustrating than getting to the library and finding out the book you want is checked out! Prevent an unnecessary trip by checking out the card catalog before you leave home. You can even reserve books and get an email notification when it’s available.

• Links, Links, and More Links. When your kids get bored, send them to the local library website. It is full of links to fun kids’ websites including some of the great ones we’ve already learned about from techsavvymama! You’ll find links from science projects to crafts!

These things all contribute to keeping us keen and savvy in the technical age while allowing us some level of efficiency to maintain a healthy family balance.

Karen shares her work/life balance insight over on her blog at http://findingme.typepad.com.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Chan on Flickr.