Desperate students? Library to the rescue!

By Matt Costanza, Medfield Library Circulation Manager

With the new school year starting, September is just about the greatest month for students to make sure you have an active and up-to-date library card! While it’s true that any time is really a great time to get a library card, we’re making September a month long drive to get students to sign up for cards, or make sure that the dusty blue card you got when you were five hasn’t expired! (Fun Fact: Library cards expire every five years so that librarians have a timely reminder to ask for any changes to your address, phone, e-mail, etc.)

If you don’t already have a card, you may be asking why you would bother getting one now. The most obvious answer is that you get FREE access to the material collections of all forty-three libraries in the Minuteman Network. But wait, you don’t have time to read with all that schoolwork? The Medfield library offers amazing resources to help out with school! If you forget your textbook but still need to get some homework done, we’ve got you covered! The library has textbooks for the Medfield Middle and High Schools, and they can even be checked out and taken home. AcademicOneFile is a great student resource, containing thousands of journal articles, full-text New York Times articles, and even NPR podcasts. The great thing is that it can be accessed from home as soon as you realize you need to do some more research! If you like to work off by yourself in the library, but still need computer access, you should try checking out a netbook from the reference desk. They can only be used in the library, but it allows you to work wherever you’d like! The best part about all these student services? They’re all completely free!

Not only do we continue to offer more and more great student services and materials, but during the September month long card drive, any student who signs up for a card or makes sure their card is up to date will receive a great prize from our teen librarian Erica. The selection of prizes is always changing, but past favorites have included gift cards, snacks, school supplies, and even silly string! In our effort to make getting a library card as pain free as possible, anyone can download our library card application from our website (MedfieldLibrary.org) . We’ve also given card applications to the librarians at the Medfield Middle and High Schools, and the English teachers at Montrose. Just take the form home (or print it out online), fill it out, have your parents sign it, and bring it to the library along with a license, student ID, or really anything that has your name on it. So come get a library card this new school year, it’s fun, easy, will get you a prize, and get you access to all the awesome stuff we have!