How Dusty is Your Library Card?

 

Posted on Behalf of Elaine Langford, Guest Blogger.

What’s your favourite writing resource? Many will say Wikipedia, and others may use reference books they bought. I’ve just rediscovered the joy of using my local library.

Wikipedia has the advantage of being available at your keyboard. However, I’m wary that the content can be edited by anyone so not 100% reliable. I love my shelves of books as much as anyone but know some reference books get out of date very quickly. I know libraries have been more than physical books for some time, with audiobooks, eBooks and films available to ‘borrow’ via downloads. Yet I have not used one since using the onsite computers for free access to Ancestry when researching family history.

Whenever I move, I always join the local library. This time, they signed me up for an online membership too. As well as reserving books, you have direct access to resources like Who’s Who and the Britannica Library. When I heard that a magazine was asking for article submissions, I signed onto from home to see if they held any physical copies. While browsing, I found PressReader, a reading portal to the main national newspapers and many magazines. I was delighted the magazine I needed was included and I could view some back copies to review. Newsbank was another press resource, allowing text searches in past editions of The Times and Sunday Times, as well as many regional newspapers and other sources. My local newspapers were listed on the home page, and a search on my name located articles in local press elsewhere. The British Newspaper Archive contained further resources but that was only available on the library computers.

There were also job seeker resources, such as COBRA (Complete Business Reference Advisor). COBRA provided great advice on setting up in business as a ‘sole trader’ and provided career advice via Business Information Factsheets (BIFs). A search for ‘writer’ produced a long list of possible job titles, such as Comedy Writer, Freelance Writer and Freelance Editor/Proofreader. Each BIF contained topics on training resources, trading issues and specific industry resources. These could be useful background information for authors researching a fictional character’s career. If further searches were made for that job title in the press resources, it may also highlight significant events to provide that perfect twist to a storyline.

What your library offers on site and online may be different, but there’s still likely to be a vast range of mostly free resources. Why not give yours a visit and ask their staff what’s available. At the least you can save money from online ad-free access to newspapers, magazines and reference material to buy a few coffees. You never know, you may find just the right resource to inform or develop your writing and it may open an opportunity to share your writing with the library community and help others discover the library is their favourite resource too.

Elaine Langford is a guest blogger on MTW and posts infrequently on her own blogs: poems on Poetry Puddles [https://poetrypuddles.wordpress.com], faith reflections on Faith Bites [https://faithbites.wordpress.com/ ] and ghost-posts for her cat as Mad Lamb [https://madlambblog.wordpress.com/].