After all the gallivanting, purchases and indulgences over the past weeks, almost everyone resolves to aim for healthier wallets going forward, among other things.
How to become a millionaire?
That is a great question, for those of us who missed the lottery over the New Year, and a tough one to find answers that will bring bountiful results by the next cycle of billing periods.
How to reduce debt? Increase income? Manage money better? Save more?
Where does all my money go?
These are also great questions! All of these come with an abundance of materials that can help us find ways to go, inch by inch… surely… towards our mission of reviving our exhausted and dehydrated wallets!
Our Library’s Online Resources offer numerous free courses on personal finance management:
We encourage you to browse the course catalogs of Gale Courses and Universal Class. When you sign up, the only contribution required is your commitment, as the courses are all free!
Some useful search words when browsing the catalogs are: personal finance, credit, debt, investments, savings, income, finance, financial planning, starting your own business, etc.
In the meantime, with baby steps in mind towards achieving financial goals, here are some resources that offer information to those who seek to increase income.
If you’re thinking of small businesses, check out the Library’s database subscription to Small Business Reference Center, which is full of helpful information from NOLO (a publisher of do-it-yourself legal books and software).
And if you’re into investments, we hope you know that your Livingston Library Card can also give you free access to Value Line and MorningStar (well-known publishers of investment research).
No access online nor to a computer? No problem! Just visit our Library, choose a computer workstation at the Adult Services and Reference section, and start on your path to learning!
All these resources can get everyone informed and moving forward — one step at a time.
Our Digital Collection can travel with you. They make great travel companions.
Music, comics, videos, magazines, books and audio books in digital format — streamed or downloaded — to your mobile devices, tablets, laptops and/or desktops.
They are light, luggage-wise, but hefty, selections-wise. These travel companions are engaging, accommodating and always on-the-go 24/7. They’re free and most importantly, advertisement-free!
Travel Companions — RBdigital, Hoopla and Overdrive/Libby
There are plenty of choices.
If you’re the kind who likes immersing in music, Hoopla might be the biggest secret you’d come to know. A lot of patrons have not realized that Hoopla is a vast resource of songs and music pieces. It offers a ton of albums from new releases to old favorites, from well-known performers and from different genres.
You can find soundtrack albums from recent movies (e.g. Mary Poppins Returns, A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody), from sought-after Broadway Musicals (e.g. Hamilton, Wicked, Pretty Woman), and from past movie releases (e.g. Purple Rain, Love Story, Saturday Night Fever). There are tunes from animated features (e.g. Studio Ghibli music, Animania albums, Sailor Moon, cartoons) and even theme music from TV programs (e.g. Mad Men, Cheers, The Twilight Zone)!
Hoopla is a great resource for music
You can enjoy this year’s music recordings as well from popular artists, holiday songs included (e.g. Twenty One Pilots, Taylor Swift, Andrea Bocelli, Lauren Daigle, Eminem, Michael Buble). You can listen away to old time favorites from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Led Zeppelin, U2, Stray Cats, Bob Marley, Prince and John Coltrane. There are amazing finds in classical and instrumental pieces from well-known symphonies and orchestras. And for the much younger ones, Hoopla offers Kidz Bop, almost all the Disney and animated movie songs you can think of, Veggie Tales, Raffi, Sesame Street, lullabies, nursery rhymes and so much more.
So there you go, something like songs from The Greatest Showman or Tupac Shakur or Children’s Music and Lullabies can be played all day long. In earbuds or whole-house loud privacy. All playlists are selected by you, u n i n t e r r u p t e d by ads. Through your Livingston Library card!
Ebooks and Audio books are offered by Hoopla and Overdrive (also known as the Libby app)
Of course, when one combines music with some reading, you’ll be in travel heaven! You can augment your listening experience with ebooks (graphic novels too!) or enjoy audio books from two sources with a comprehensive list of titles: Hoopla and Overdrive (or Libby which is Overdrive’s app for smartphones and tablets). Browse through their collections and you might be surprised at what you would find there for any age. Hoopla has a great selection of recently published books and upcoming authors, all available immediately on demand, while Overdrive has numerous popular high-demand titles, available in different formats.
If you’d prefer materials with a mix of words and images, you can flip through digital magazines from RBdigital while lovers of comics, graphic novels, manga and some illustrated series can make great finds in Hoopla and Overdrive as well.
RBdigital is a great resource for magazines
RBdigital has magazines that offer easy reads, substantial content and specific interests (e.g. popular beauty and style magazines, Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker, PCWorld, American Girl, Minecraft World, Boating, Newsweek, Beadwork, etc.). It’s perfect as chill companions in crowded airport lounges or by colorful beach lounge chairs, and as distractions while commuting, when waiting during pick-up times, or while standing in long lines anywhere!
Hoopla offers comics from well-known publishers
Now to spend time with alternate universes, browse titles in Hoopla under the comics category. There you will find trending characters like Aquaman, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Naruto, Avatar, Big Nate, Saga, Garfield and numerous choices from DC Comics, Marvel and other well-known publishers. Overdrive also has graphic novels and illustrated books, among which are Amulet and Dr Seuss. A pleasant drive down memory lane comes with this one when you’re into something like Archie comics or Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
Movies and television programs can be checked out from Hoopla
Then for those times when you’d rather watch something, you can check out Hoopla for shorts, kiddie videos, movies and television programs. Some examples are the latest seasons of TV shows like Doc Martin and The Librarians (ahem!), mystery shows like Vera, Poirot and Agatha Christie, favorites like Shameless, Anthony Bourdain, Spongebob and Avatar, documentaries like Always at the Carlyle, Arranged, works by Ken Burns, learning options from The Great Courses and PBS, and exercise videos from Jillian Michaels. Movies include 2018’s RBG, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, foreign films like The Elephant and the Butterfly and Monsoon Wedding, classics like Charade and Chinatown, plenty of horror movies, plus tons for the kids like The Velveteen Rabbit and 10-minute shorts from Mo Willems.
At this point, we hope you can imagine being curled up in your cozy spots, or getting a much needed respite from stressful transits, with these wonderful resource companions.
There are plenty of options indeed. For all ages.
Streamed or downloaded. Totally advertisement-free.
To go on trains, planes, and automobiles, on dreamy yachts and fishing boats, too! And the best part with these items is that you don’t have to worry about losing the copies. They automatically get checked back in, at the end of the loan period. Nothing more to worry about. You can relax and just enjoy their company.
With these thoughts and now that you know more about these great resources from our Library, we wish you happy travels!
