Our Peaks branch is open at the Peaks school. Renovation of the Community Center & Library is underway. Join the effort by making a gift!
X

Life of the Library » Online Services

What’s new?


Online Learning and Technology Offerings at PPL

posted: , by Meg Gray
tags: Online Services | Adults | Teens | Seniors | Science & Technology

Did you know that the Library has resources for learning online?

Lynda.com is an online learning site that helps people to learn a variety of skills, from software development to business marketing. It has a library of over 1,000 courses, appropriate for all levels of experience. The site contains video instruction on topics like SEO, flash photography, cloud computing, accounting, business intelligence, and DSLR video. The courses cover technical skills, creative techniques, business strategies, and more. Users are granted a 2 week pass to the website to follow as many courses as desired within that time frame, and you can renew your subscription to complete a course by signing up for another pass. To gain access, please fill out this form on the Maine State Library website.

Another option for users is the resources on the Learning Express Library. This resource has information on basic computer and Internet skills, as well as more college prep courses—SAT, ACT, PSAT, and admissions essay assistance. There is an adult learning center to help improve math, reading, and grammatical skills; a career center for occupational exam preparation and job skill assessment; a college center for math, reading, science and writing; information in Spanish, and much more.

In addition to these online tools, the Public Computing department has resumed Friday tutoring hours, for individual assistance with computer issues. You can call to make a half hour appointment, 207-871-1700, extension 708. Basic computing, and intermediate computer skills classes will return in January 2015.

 


eBook Privacy and the Adobe Controversy

posted: , by Editor
tags: About the Library | Library Collections | Online Services | Adults | Teens | Kids & Families | Seniors

Privacy is one of the main tenets of public libraries, so the recently exposed security concerns for patrons using Adobe Digital Editions to access library eBooks is very troubling to us at PPL.

You can read more about the developments here and here, but in short, if you are using the latest version of Adobe Digital Editions software, information about any eBooks on your computer delivered in the ePub format is being transmitted to Adobe in plain text format and is potentially visible to anyone who can read the stream of data. 

NOTE: PPL’s eBook service is provided by Overdrive. Read below OverDrive’s statement about Adobe Digital Editions privacy concerns

UPDATE: 2:30 PM 10/10/14

In response to concerns expressed by our library partners about the Adobe privacy situation, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash met with Adobe management at Frankfurt Book Fair today. Adobe reported that next week they will release an update to Adobe Digital Editions 4 to address the known issues.

To clarify, this affects only Adobe Digital Editions 4 for Windows and Mac. Adobe reports that the issue does not affect third party apps in any way, including the OverDrive app. Adobe reports that the issue is not present with Adobe Digital Editions 3 or previous versions of Adobe Digital Editions.

For full text: http://blogs.overdrive.com/front-page-library-news/2014/10/09/overdrives-statement-about-adobe-digital-editions-privacy-concerns/

If you are concerned about your eBook privacy, we recommend that you uninstall Adobe Digital Editions version 4 from all of your devices immediately. You can still read eBook content online, or contact the library for print options. The Kindle app for accessing the Amazon format of eBooks is available to mobile and tablet users, and materials read directly through the Overdrive app are excluded from this breach of privacy.

We have expressed our dismay to our eBook provider, and have asked them to advocate for the principles of privacy that libraries are pledged to uphold. We are committed to challenging anyone who confuses “privacy policies” with “invasive policies.” Please contact the library if you have any additional questions or concerns about this issue.


Welcome To HOOPLA! Our Newest Digital Service for DOWNLOADS!

posted: , by PPL
tags: Online Services | Adults | Teens | Kids & Families | Seniors | Art & Culture | News

Now you’ll be able to stream movies, tv episodes, audiobooks, and music for FREE using your PPL library card. HOOPLA is a division of Midwest Tape, a trusted name in the library world of audiotapes, movies and music.  We selected their product for ease of use and the breadth of their content.

To begin you’ll needhoopla a Portland Public Library card. Go to hoopladigital.com and:

#1 Follow their fast, easy, four-step sign-in process.

#2 If you want hoopla on the go, you can also install their free mobile app on your iOS or Android device.

That’s it! Once you sign in, you are set to begin borrowing. You can borrow up to 6 items per month and borrowing times are  21 days for an audiobook, 7 days for music, 3 days for video.

From “Guns, Germs, and Steel” to “Heidi,” from “The Big Lebowski” to “The Nuremberg Trials,” hoopla has something for everyone. Try it and let us know what you think!

View Posts by Date:
Filter Posts:
Connect with the Library:
https://www.portlandlibrary.com/life-of-the-library/page/4/?cat=68
www.portlandlibrary.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-51
71593
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:XTOZM7WLLKTSPY6W3LMBA6D6GPMLNFOO
<urn:uuid:c930f9dd-e12e-4bf8-a51d-3fe845a865ba>
2017-12-17T07:59:51Z
72.47.224.92
text/html
sha1:4GK4DPL4UVT4IL7FUE355ZP436IYXNN2
<urn:uuid:9fee3172-a6f7-44f9-a31a-6223273dd30c>
https://www.portlandlibrary.com/life-of-the-library/page/4/?cat=68
response
<urn:uuid:73cbddbb-d5df-40ff-996e-92fcbfbe1160>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-178-209-38.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-51
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for December 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf