Phoenixville Library News & Job Openings

Dear Patrons and Community Members,

Per the Governor’s orders, Chester County will be moving to the Yellow Phase on Friday, June 5. For the Phoenixville Public Library, this means that library staff will be able to enter the buildings for the first time since March 13. We are very excited to begin the process of reopening the library.

We have been working hard behind the scenes to provide you with resources online through our newsletters, website, and social media. We will continue to provide information about databases, access to eMaterials, and a selection of virtual programming, as we did while we were unable to access the buildings. In addition, we have developed a thorough plan for reopening to ensure the safety of staff and patrons.

Although staff will be allowed in the buildings on June 5, the library will remain closed to the public for the next several weeks. While in the building, the staff will be quarantining and processing returned items, moving furniture and workstations to ensure social distancing, setting up a quarantine area, designating traffic patterns, and developing a process to provide curbside pick-up as soon as possible.

Effective June 5, we will begin to accept returns of materials in the book drops. However, due to the backlog of materials we are experiencing, it will take a week or two before they are checked in and removed from your records.

On Monday June 15, the library will begin walk-up pickup of materials that are on hold. We are excited to bring this service to you all. We will send out more information about this service soon.
Please know that we are doing everything we can to help ensure the safety and well-being of our staff and patrons, and we ask that you continue to be patient while we work toward reopening.  We look forward to seeing you all again, at a safe distance!

Sincerely,
The Phoenixville Public Library

The Library has secured a free, 30-day trial of online eBooks and video courses from O’Reilly, a publisher of business and tech content. Thousands of books and videos are available in such areas as managing your home office, job searching and networking, personal electronics, photography, home based finances, basic programming, and broad business skills. Access these resources, which will be available through June 14, here.

Reference publisher World Book is currently offering free online access to all of its digital resources for students in all grade levels through May 31.  Access them here.

Read all about it from the Pennsylvania Library Association!

Looking for more places to find eBooks?  Here are links to several FREE eBook sites:

Google Books (books.google.com) – searchable fiction and nonfiction books, magazines, and newspapers in public domain or available through permission of publisher; full-text books available in PDF format; you’ll find more recent nonfiction books here

Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/texts) – more than 20 million books and texts, including 1.3 million modern eBooks (published since 1924); requires free archive.org account; modern eBooks have 14-day checkout period (with no wait lists through June 30, 2020), and can be read online or downloaded with free Adobe Digital Editions software

Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/collections/selected-digitized-books/about-this-collection) – over 11,000 fiction and nonfiction books, including classics, published before 1924; available in PDF and EPUB formats

Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) – over 60,000 free EPUB and Kindle books for reading online or downloading to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device; mostly literary works published before 1924; lots of classics here

The Chester County Library System has released an online guide to the eBooks, eMagazines, Mobile App, and other electronic resources available throughout the Library System.  Access it here!

Chester County’s Maternal and Child Health Consortium is still open remotely, helping individuals enroll in health insurance, SNAP benefits, and cash assistance.  In addition, individuals can apply for Emergency Medical Assistance to cover medical expenses if they are tested or treated for COVID-19.   Questions? Call 610-344-5370.  View an informational bilingual video at https://youtu.be/Mq5va4R_eZs.

The Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a nonprofit organization providing professional development on career topics, is holding its regular Career Success Group meetings and other educational sessions online via Zoom.  Les Segarnick, host of Phoenixville Library’s weekly in-person Career Success Group meetings, is a member of this organization.  There is no cost to attend.  Donations to the organization are welcome.  Access the online meetings here: http://meetu.ps/c/cyDr/7cMNb/a.

Reference publisher EBSCO is providing free access to their online resources to support distance learning, ESL learners, GED prep, college test prep, and more, through June 30.  Access all the resources here:

https://more.ebsco.com/k12-pl-covid-19-resources.html