Get on the path to find a job, build your own website, start a business, improve your English, write your book, brush up on your computer skills, prepare for college, and more. Cardholders have free access to courses with their Library card. Once registered, the Library is unable to drop or transfer you from a course. Please read the course requirements carefully prior to registering for a course.Not sure how to start? Watch the tutorial in Niche Academy: Gale Courses tutorial
Read more about "Free, interactive, instructor-led online courses. "Frank O’Keeffe has lived all over the world, but no matter where he travels one thing never changes — how close he stays to his local library.“I’ve always gone to the library wherever I’ve lived. They are invaluable places in our communities, and have always brought such joy to my family,” he says. “We went to live in Australia for a year when our daughter was two, we even had a library card there as well.”Frank signed up for his first Calgary Public Library card about 50 years ago. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Frank immigrated to Canada when he was 19 years old. Memorial Park Library provided him with a place to visit during the day on his way to and from work.When Frank began university, the library became a place to find free resources on the Canadian history he was studying. He eventually became a teacher, passing on the love of learning libraries instilled in him to students and his own family.“My daughter got her first Library card when she was just a little girl. She was always wanting us to take her to Memorial Park Library and read books — new books, more books,” he says. “And it was so convenient, because you could borrow as many books as you liked.”An Accomplished AuthorFrank is more than just a lover of libraries, though; he’s also an author with books on library shelves, including eight young adult novels. His ninth book is Woodbine, an adult historical fiction novel that follows a young girl and her father as they travel from Paris across Africa in the 1890s, eventually visiting Ireland as the First World War breaks out.Frank says this most recent novel, published in August 2018, could not have crossed the finish line without the help of staff at Shawnessy Library.“Three of the ladies at Shawnessy Library — Olga Tanailova, Kirsten Pedersen, and Nelli Boutchev — were instrumental in that last book being published. Those three read my last manuscript as I was writing it. They helped me research it. I even acknowledged them in the book. It couldn’t have happened without their help.”As a retired teacher and avid history buff, Frank says he enjoys the opportunity writing gives him to inject a bit of realistic humour into everyday life, “because the world can always use more of that.” His next book, The Grand Getaway, set to be published this spring, focuses heavily on that aspect.“It starts with an old folks’ home, and a homeless man. One of the patients at the home is living with dementia, and she wants to go see the Grand Canyon one last time, because she went there when she was young on the back of a motorcycle. And so, this homeless man is accidentally let into the home one day and ends up sort of hiding out there, and the two of them form a sort of unlikely friendship that leads to adventure.”‘Chitchat and Good Company’The characters explore themes that hit particularly close to home for Frank. His wife Patricia was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 10 years ago. As the couple has grown older and their family’s needs have changed, how they use the Library has changed too.“I certainly used to read a lot, but I don’t have as much time for it now. I try to keep as active as I can, but my life involves a lot of worrying about my wife these days. Helping care for her is the most important thing,” Frank says.The Library has become a part of Patricia and Frank’s weekly routine. On Fridays, Frank takes Patricia out from the care facility where she lives and the pair go to the ESL Coffee and Conversation program at Shawnessy Library, for some “chitchat and good company.” Once a newcomer to Canada himself, Frank empathizes with the people who attend the program.“Many of the folks I meet at the Library are immigrants, just like me,” he says. “As an older patron, what I get out of the Library now is companionship. I’m still pretty active, and I don’t have any health problems, but it can be hard to meet new people. The Library is an important means of communication for me.”We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories ‘Invaluable Places in Our Communities’ Frank O'Keeffe has been writing his Library Story for over 50 years"At the opening ceremony for Central Library on November 1, five special members joined Library CEO Bill Ptacek and Mayor Naheed Nenshi on stage. Instead of a ribbon-cutting, these people were presented with the first five Library cards issued at the new building. The five members represent more than 670,000 active Library members across Calgary.Alex Grinwis is a 17-year-old Grade 11 student who has been using Calgary Public Library since a very young age. Alex loves reading, and is also passionate about music — playing piano, guitar, ukulele, and currently learning violin. When asked what they’re looking forward to about the new building, they said: “I’m just looking forward to having such a cool space to be able to go and do homework or find new books.”Nikki Brule is the proud owner of Yummy Yogis, a small business she helped develop and grow by using the Library. Nikki does a lot of research for her business at the Library, and often brings along her six-year-old daughter. As an entrepreneur who works from home, she enjoys having a space to come to, surrounded by books, where she can work and connect with others.Mirna Khaled arrived in Calgary from Lebanon in 2015, in search of better opportunities for her children: nine-year-old twins Jalal and Julia. Mirna appreciates the accessibility of the Library as Julia has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. In Calgary, Mirna and her children visit the Library two to three times a week; they like to read, play, and meet new friends. There’s even a book about Julia, written by Mirna and Julia’s aunt, on library shelves!Frank O’Keeffe is a longtime Library member who first got his Calgary Public Library card about 50 years ago. Frank, who is originally from Ireland, is a former teacher who has written and published eight young adult novels. He recently published his first adult novel that staff members at Shawnessy Library helped to review. Frank visits the Library several times a week and brings his wife — who has Alzheimer’s — to the ESL Coffee and Conversation program, for some chitchat and good company. “As an older patron, what I get out of the Library now is companionship,” he says.Felix McLeod Saunders is just two and a half years old and is ready for his first Calgary Public Library card! His mother Maranda is excited to have a new, public space in Calgary where she and her young children can connect with their Indigenous culture and learn together. Plus, Felix is really into books.Special thanks to these five members and to everyone who joined us for the opening ceremony of Central Library!
Read more about "Stories Introducing the new Central Library’s First Five Members"Calgary Public Library now has five mobile libraries that are rolling into communities around the city!Three vehicles are Book Trucks, bringing books, movies, and other Library services directly to the community. Our Book Trucks stop at regularly scheduled locations, and are also available to visit school or community events. Come aboard the Book Truck to get a free Library card, browse and borrow items, return items, or attend seasonal children’s programs.The fleet of libraries on wheels also includes two Story Trucks. These vehicles are designed to bring literacy activities directly to young children at day homes in select neighbourhoods. Library staff share stories, songs, and rhymes with children, through the Library Month at Your Day Home program.For our newest Story Truck, the Library worked with Mo Willems, children’s author and creator of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and many other beloved titles.“The fact that the Story Truck team is leaving the building and going directly to the kids means they rock that much more!” Mo Willems says.Want the Story Truck to visit your day home? Requests can be made via this form. You can also request a Book Truck visit for your community event or school.
Read more about "Stories Meet the Library’s Newest Story Truck"As a little kid in the 1980s, I had assumed public libraries only existed on television — that they were part of a dream world that was totally unattainable in my own life as a child of Chinese immigrants. But when I was eight-years-old, a friend’s mother suggested we go get some books at the Library. In Calgary? Really? We had more than just school libraries here?Roaming among shelf after shelf of books, I was hooked. I memorized the location of the Thorncliffe Library (now called Judith Umbach Library) and asked my mother to bring me back for my own Library card the following week. For a shy bookish girl, it was a dream come true.I read almost everything, but my favourite books were by Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, and Judy Blume. As I got older I enjoyed reading The Baby-Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and other series. It was a treat to find them at the Library, since $3.95 for a book was pretty much an impossible sum of money to me as a kid.Now as a mother of three, I have become a regular Library user again. At first, I signed up for a card so I could attend a baby class at Country Hills Library with my eldest, but then I got the Library app on my phone and everything changed.It’s so easy to put books on hold through the app, and it has revitalized my reading. Last year I read 64 books, and most of those books were from the Library. I bring my kids to Country Hills Library at least every other week — sometimes more! — and they love to pick out all sorts of reading material. We take out about 20 books at a time. My girls, ages eight and seven, are big readers, and my three-year-old also loves to be read to. The Library has always represented limitless possibility to me — so many books waiting to be read — and all that reading has inspired me to write my own book manuscript, a graphic memoir on postpartum depression. While working on the book, I borrowed a lot of graphic novels and memoirs from the Library so I could get a good sense of other books in the genre. And I just want to say that whoever is responsible for acquiring graphic novels for the Library is doing an excellent job. The Library has been an invaluable resource for me both personally and professionally.Follow Teresa and view her drawings on Instagram at @by_teresawong.We want to know how the Library has made a difference in your life. Submit your own Library Story online.
Read more about "Stories "I Read Almost Everything" Discovering the Library was a dream come true in Teresa Wong's Library Story"For more ways you can access the Library remotely, visit our Library at Home page with links to online programming and digital resources that will help with job searches, learning new skills, building wellness, and more along with resources that will keep you entertained and satisfy your curiosities.
Read more about "More Library at Home"As Calgary Public Library prepares for the opening of the new Central Library on November 1, we’re also saying goodbye to Central Library, our home for the past 55 years. Take a look at photos from our past and see how our beloved downtown Library has served a growing city for more than five decades.Plans for a new Central Library were in the works as early as 1954, amid a space crunch at Memorial Park Library. But after two failed plebiscites for a new library in the 1950s, the project stalled.In 1961, Mayor Harry Hays told Chief Librarian W.R. Castell that a downtown area across from city hall, slated for urban renewal, could include a new library. No plebiscite would be needed this time; the money would come from a surplus in land sales for new subdivisions. In February 1962, construction of a new downtown Library began on the site of a former service station.Central Library, in all its brutalist splendor, officially opened on June 15, 1963. Castell was thrilled. “Except for the day in January 1912 when the doors of the Library opened for the first time to the public, June 15, 1963, will be long remembered as the most important date in the history of the institution,” he said.The Library was designed by J.H. Cook and Associates, a Calgary architectural firm. Its monolithic look was typical of office buildings at the time. Inside, interior details included an orange, gold, and blue-green colour plan, teak bookshelves and catalogue cabinets, white formica tables, and blue and nutmeg carpeting.While opening day featured a speech by Lieutenant Governor Percy Page, not everyone got to hear it. Seventeen people got stuck in an elevator for 35 minutes. As Central patrons know well, elevator challenges have continued over the years.When it opened, Central Library had a children’s area in the basement, next to a newspaper reading room. The main floor housed a circulation desk and a carpeted reading lounge filled with comfortable seating, where smoking was permitted.The second floor, the reference department, offered the Library’s first-ever coin-operated Xerox photocopying machine for patrons. The third floor had music and film rooms, books on art, music, and theatre, and an art gallery operated by the Glenbow Foundation.The fourth floor was used for the storage of books and the fifth floor housed the ordering, cataloguing, and bookbinding departments. Finally, the sixth floor contained the administrative offices and a circular auditorium.In 1963, when Central Library opened, Calgary’s population was just over 275,000. Central Library had a full-time staff of 41, and Calgarians could borrow books free of charge. They used a transaction card system, filling in cards with their names and address to check out books.In the 1970s, as energy prices soared, Calgary became one of the fastest-growing cities in North America. It soon became apparent more room was needed at Central Library.In early 1971, a formal request went to the city for a much-needed extension, and construction started the following year. The six-storey addition to the north of Central Library opened in 1974.A second-floor theatre was added, and the Library was renamed the W.R. Castell Central Library. A metal sculpture was commissioned and added to what was then the front of the Library, a piece of public art by Robert Oldrich known as “Library Frieze.”Over the years, there’s been many renovations at Central Library. A dedicated Canadiana room opened on the main floor in 1967, Canada’s centennial year. In 1981, the fourth floor of Central Library’s north extension was opened to the public. With wider aisles and lower shelves, it was designed to be accessible to people with disabilities.In 1990, work started on major renovations, including an expanded second-floor children’s area, a secure room for the Local History collection, and a new main entrance at the southwest corner. In 1993, Central’s theatre was named in honour of John Dutton, the chief librarian from 1979 to 1991.In 2011, Central Library’s main floor was renovated to accommodate the new City Hall LRT platform. In 2013, a catastrophic June flood profoundly affected Alberta and Calgary, including Central Library’s lower level, where water seepage caused significant damage.In 2016, Central Library welcomed a big addition. A decommissioned fire truck was moved to the main floor. Engine 23 was retrofitted into a space for kids to play, read, learn, and listen to regular storytimes with firefighters.After 55 years in our current home, we can’t wait to welcome you to the new Central Library. Come visit starting November 1.Want to learn more? Read The Calgary Public Library: Inspiring Life Stories Since 1912 by Brian Brennan, explore the online Calgary Public Library Archives: Our Story in Pictures, and visit the Vintage Media Lab in the new Central Library.
Read more about "Stories Saying Goodbye to Central Library Photos Through the Years (1962 – 2018)"You can borrow a Chromebook for the day to use inside the Library; Chromebooks cannot be taken outside.
Read more about "Borrow a Chromebook to use anywhere in the Library"We connect people and organizations who want to make a difference with the opportunity to improve our shared community. All donations cultivate innovation and bring the Library to those who need it most.Since 2011, the Library Foundation has raised more than $60 million in support of the Calgary Public Library. Our 21,500 donors are helping to build a stronger Calgary.
Read more about "The Calgary Public Library Foundation supports the Library through fundraising."Your Library card is for your individual use — and it’s your ticket to accessing everything the Library offers.
Read more about "Sign up for your free membership online or in person."The Library Board, appointed by the City of Calgary, represents the communities the Library serves. Agendas and minutes from board meetings are also available.
Read more about "The Library Board"1. Use your Calgary Public Library card to access free eBooks. It’s easy to download eBooks onto a computer, smartphone, or tablet using our Digital Resources, including Libby, Overdrive, Gale Virtual Library, Read Alberta eBooks, and TumbleBookLibrary (just for kids). Happy reading!2. Love podcasts? You’re going to love audiobooks. Nothing makes your daily commute — or a long road trip — better than having the perfect audiobook to accompany you. 3. Did you know there are more than 60 free meeting rooms available at libraries across Calgary? Book a space for your business, not-for-profit, study group, book club, or event.4. Early Learning Centres! These free spaces, located in 12 libraries around Calgary, are designed to encourage young children to learn through play. Whimsical and wonderful, your kids are never going to want to leave the Library.5. It’s Sunday, you’re ready to hit print on your final paper for the semester. But oh no, you’re out of ink and your printer won’t stop jamming. What do you do? Come to the Library, of course! All Library members receive $5 of free printing each month. You’ll never be in another jam with a Library card.6. Read your favourite magazines for free with Digital Resources like Flipster Magazines. Flipster gives you access to Time, People, Us Weekly, Maclean’s, Canadian Geographic, Today’s Parent, and many more. Plus our Digital Resource National Geographic Virtual Library gives you access to every edition of National Geographic since 1888. Wow.7. You can use your Library card to borrow musical instruments! The Musical Instrument Lending Library at Memorial Park Library has instruments including guitars, ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, violins, keyboards, and bongos. Plus, the Library offers a variety of free programs to help you learn a new instrument or develop your skills, and there’s also a Practice Room at Memorial Park Library —perfect for aspiring musicians — that can comfortably accommodate two people. What are you waiting for? Start learning a new instrument today.8. Programs, programs, and more programs... and they’re all free. Calgary Public Library has programs for babies, families, kids, teens, adults, seniors, newcomers, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking for learning and enrichment. Discover a world of free programs with Library Connect, our program guide, or search our programs online to find what you’re looking for. We ♥ programs!9. More into listening to music than learning to play it? Stream free music on Freegal, a music service with nearly 13 million songs. Download five free songs per week and listen to three hours of streaming per day.10. Looking to learn another language? The Library has got you covered. Get free access to language learning Digital Resources including Rosetta Stone Library Solution and Pronunciator.11. Love learning? So do we! Take free online courses at LinkedIn Learning and Gale Courses. The interactive, instructor-led online courses cover topics like business skills, web design, photography, graphic design, and much more.12. Attention all movie buffs! Access more than 30,000 films for free with Kanopy. Watch award-winning documentaries and acclaimed films, rare and hard-to-find titles, must-see classic films, Canadian cinema selections, and an array of foreign language films.13. Book clubs are a great way to meet and create lasting connections with people who have similar reading interests to you. Start a new book club or take your existing one to the next level these free resources.14. Read thousands of popular newspapers, including local and international newspapers in multiple languages, with PressReader. Read on your browser or mobile device… no more ink-stained fingers for you!
Read more about "Stories 14 Library Perks You Need to Know About Now"Whether you live right on the edge of Calgary’s city limits and drive to work downtown, or live in the heart of the city and hop on transit to get where you need to go, many Calgarians have a commute to contend with. If that travel time is starting to get you down, don’t worry — you can transform it with these resources, all free with your Library card.AudiobooksIf your drive to work keeps your hands at the wheel, or your walk means keeping an eye out for obstacles, that doesn’t mean you can’t still be catching up on your reading. Library members can stream or download hours of audiobook titles from AudioBookCloud, OverDrive, and Libby to listen to on their way to work.eBooksTired of lugging around books to read on the train or bus? Opt for the ease of an eBook on your phone or tablet. With eBooks from Libby, LitFinder, and a resource just for Alberta eBooks, you can store thousands of great reads right in your pocket. For younger readers, check out BookFlix, Study Buddy, and TumbleBook Library for children’s eBooks.Movies and TV ShowsCan’t find time to watch the latest movies and TV shows? Start and end your day with shows and movies on Kanopy. This Digital Resource offers over 30,000 documentaries, classics, international films, and training videos, including selections from the Criterion Collection, Great Courses, and Frontline series, along with film and TV for kids.Newspapers and MagazinesIf you like to start your day by perusing the morning paper, the Library can help. Use Digital Resources including the New York Times Online, Canadian Newsstream, and PressReader to read news from local and international publications. If magazines are your preference, you can read popular publications with Flipster Online Magazines, and PressReader including People, Macleans, Time, Canadian Geographic, and Vogue.
Read more about "Stories Four Ways to Transform Your Commute with Free Library Resources"Become a Library expert Central Library Tours Lead one-hour tours of Central Library, sharing stories, a brief history, and information about spaces. Art and Community Circuit Guide community walking tours around Central and Memorial Park libraries, focused on civic art, history, or nature. Special Events Help greet guests, provide information, and complete other tasks for special events at the Library.
Read more about "Become a Library expert"