Lately I’ve realized folks don’t know everything the Seaside Public Library offers and because we keep adding things, sometimes we forget to toot our own horn. Did you know that the Seaside Public Library offers way more than books? Here is a refresher course on just how many cool and awesome things we offer at the Seaside Public Library. We offer all these things to out of town folks for the price of a library card. For folks in the city limits of Seaside, your card is free, we just need to see proof of who you are and where you live.

First of all, we have a few books. OK, make that a lot of books. In fact, we have thousands of books. Plus, if you don’t like the books we have, we can get you just about any other book you are looking for with a few exceptions, just give us a few weeks’ time to find it and get it to you. We request and borrow books from other libraries in Oregon and across the United States. In fact, one time we even got a book from Langley, Virginia, from the Central Intelligence Agency library. Yes, they loan out books too. I don’t remember what the title was but likely it was something about spying or going undercover. We also have several thousand music CDs and over 5,000 DVDs and Blu-ray disks.

We also offer magazines and newspapers. We have about forty different magazines we subscribe to and you can check out the back issues. The latest issue is for in the library only. We also have audiobooks on CD which are great for listening to on long road trips in your car. We also have something called Playaways which are an entire book in one little box that you can attach headphones to. These are great if you want to take an audiobook on a walk or to your job. The box is small enough to carry easily in a pocket.

If you are looking to do a little research on the Seaside area, a great way to start is the back issues of the Seaside Signal newspaper. We have the entire newspaper on microfilm going back to the early 1900s and staff are happy to help show you how to use the digital microfilm reader. You can print out pages as you go along.

The library also has an energy meter called a Kill A Watt. If you plug this into outlets around your house and follow the instructions, you can find out just how much energy you are using and maybe even find out some ways to reduce your electricity costs.

Something new that we offer at the library is Wi-Fi hot spots. This is a small box you can take home for a week and it will give you free Internet access for up to 10 devices! We offer this service so more people have access to the Internet.

We have a lot of demand for this hot spot so unfortunately, at least for now, a week at a time is all you can check it out for before getting back in the line of people waiting to use it again. We have two of these devices. They work in the car or in your home.

We love when folks bike to the library and we offer free bike locks for use while in the library. Just let us hold your ID for you and you can use a bike lock to chain up your bike to our bike rack while you are in the library!

While you are in the library, feel free to use our wireless or Wi-Fi internet connection. In today’s digital age, people walk in carrying a smart phone, tablet, and a laptop and they can connect them all to our Wi-Fi. Just ask for the password at the library’s front desk.

For those a little less connected, we also offer public computers. We allow ninety minutes per day for adults to surf the Internet, look for a job, check your email, we have the Microsoft office suite on all 14 of the computers in the adult computer lab.

This is just a small sampling of what the library offers. We also offer over 250 programs each year for kids, teens, and adults. Our monthly calendar always has listed what is available at the library and the full calendar can be found in the library or the latest events can be found at www.seasidelibrary.org.