Cheers for library, its free music collection, service

Three cheers for the Pima County Public Library! There were
already a myriad of reasons to love and support your local library
system: From its outstanding collection, to its meeting room space,
computer access, online databases and easy-to-use reserve system
online, our public library has served as a crucial nexus in our
community. This is particularly true in this tough economy, as the
library is a key resource for the unemployed, providing office
space, Wi-Fi, computer access, and books and movies to help pass
the time.

One more reason to cheer for the library came last week when it
kicked off a download service for music. As the Star’s Becky
Pallack reported, library cardholders can download three songs a
week from the online music service Freegal.

All you have to do is go to library.pima.gov

Then under “downloadable media,” simply click on “Music from
Freegal.” From there, enter your library card number and your pin
to search for tunes.

We did some investigative reporting last week and downloaded
three songs: one each from Neil Diamond, Pearl Jam and Ben Folds
Five. They each took about 20 seconds to download, and the songs
went straight to our iTunes library where they will stay. No late
fees.

The songs will download to a variety of music software – not
just iTunes.

The Pima County library is allowing anyone with a library card
to access Freegal to download three songs a week. The library will
pay an estimated $46,650 for the subscription to the site, which is
about 12 cents per library cardholder. Put another way, as a
taxpayer you are paying for this, but as a downloader it is
“free.”

The move to include digital music to the library’s collection,
so to speak, is an important step in keeping the library a dynamic
place in our community. Already the library allows readers to
“check out” ebooks and provides a number of services to taxpayers
on its website. Its newspaper archives, for example, are invaluable
for basic research on state and national news. Books and other
materials across the system can be shipped and moved to convenient
locations for checkout. We recently had Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s
Christmas in Wales” shipped over to the Joel D. Valdez branch
downtown, for example.

More and more people are transitioning to digital forms of
music, books and (gulp) news, and this move, yet again, reminds us
that our library is keeping pace.

So to summarize: The library is great. Enjoy your three songs a
week.

Three cheers for the Pima County Public library!

Arizona Daily Star