Summer won’t begin officially until Tuesday, but the warm-weather season has already brought a variety of programs and new additions to Schlow Centre Region Library.
The biggest public library in Centre County, Schlow, at 211 S. Allen St. in State College, has begun to offer free MP3 downloads. It’s also introduced a new book-return location at the Nittany Mall, in College Township, and summer-reading programs, including those for children, teenagers and adults.
Here’s a look at some recent and ongoing Schlow highlights.
- Freegal. Since mid-May, Schlow has been offering free MP3 music-file downloads through its website. The downloads are provided via Freegal Music, an online database that allows users access to songs — more than 500,000 of them — in the Song Music Entertainment catalog.
New music is added to Freegal every day, according to a Schlow news release. Every Schlow cardholder is eligible for three free MP3 downloads through the service each week. Each cardholder will need to enter his or her library card number and PIN in order to access the feature. The service has been made possible by Friends of Schlow Centre Region Library, according to the release.
- New book return. Also in May, Schlow introduced a new book-return drop-off location at the Nittany Mall. It’s situated inside Entrance B, just across from the Gardeners Candies store, and it’s accessible between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Other Schlow drop-off locations — in addition to the library itself — are at Brothers Pizza in Stormstown, the Giant supermarket on North Atherton Street, the Uni-Mart at Carson’s Corner and the Weis supermarket off South Atherton Street. The drop-off locations accept not only books and other items loaned from Schlow, but also those loaned from other Centre County public libraries and the county Bookmobile.
- Summer reading programs. For adults, Schlow has introduced the seasonal reading program dubbed ‘Novel Destinations’; it offers a number of prizes, outlined on the program’s web page.
For teenagers, the library has organized the ‘You Are Here’ summer reading program, also with prizes. Details, including specifics about a weekend kickoff party, are available through the Schlow website, as well.
And for children, a third summer reading program — ‘One World, Many Stories’ — has been organized at Schlow. Its specifics are online, too.
