GPL MAKING BOOKS AS ACCESSIBLE AS POSSIBLE

NEW SERVICES INCREASE EBOOK AVAILABILITY, AND ASSISTED READING OFFERINGS, WRITES RYAN WALDRON

The library has added the Overdrive ebook and audiobook service that uses the Libby app for mobile devices.

To use it, install the app on your device and find Grimsby Public Library (part of the Ontario Library Service Consortium Centre) without confusing us with the Grimsby Library in England, which perplexingly also has Overdrive! If you have a Kobo ereader, you can access Overdrive directly from the home screen on the device.

Besides the thousands of eBooks and audiobooks you can access with Overdrive, there is also a large selection of magazines such as Hello, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Canadian Living, and Rolling Stone. Please contact us if you have any questions about using Overdrive or accessing any of our "online library" content.

We now have a C-Pen ReaderPen, a portable scanning pen that reads printed text out loud using an embedded camera, realtime optical character recognition (OCR), and natural voice text to speech. Designed to assist those with reading challenges such as dyslexia, or those learning to read in English, French or Spanish, The C-Pen ReaderPen is available to borrow. Reserve it for yourself in our online catalogue by searching for "C-Pen Reader," or stop by our service desk.

The Family Day Weekend is also the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 17-20. Every year, bird enthusiasts around the world take part in the four-day event counting birds to help create a real-time snapshot of how many birds are where. We are doing a count at the library; come hang out in the children's area for at least 15 minutes, watch for birds on our patio, and record your sightings on our tally sheet. We will also have a drop-in bird craft running over the weekend, and on the PA Day, Friday, Feb. 17, we will be showing the cinematic sequel about irate birds (an ornithological classic!), starting at 2 p.m.

In advance of the Great Backyard Bird Count, on Thursday, Feb. 16, we are pleased to welcome local expert Bruce Mackenzie for a presentation about birding along the Niagara Escarpment. The Escarpment is a ribbon of green over 700 kilometres long, that travels through a number of climate zones and offers a variety of habitats for birds, from the Carolinian Canada Forest Zone in Niagara to the southern tip to the Boreal Forest Zone around Tobermory. Please register for this program in the calendar under the "programs and events" tab on our website.

Participate in One Book, One Niagara, by joining our book club to discuss this year's selection, "Care Of," by author and performer Ivan Coyote. Register in our online calendar and then pick up a copy here at the library. The meeting takes place on Wednesday, March 1 at 6:30 p.m. "Care Of" combines powerful letters from readers and audience members with Ivan's responses, creating a body of correspondence of startling intimacy, breathtaking beauty, and heartbreaking honesty and openness.