Tips & Tricks for ACLA Databases and Downloadables

Hoopla emails, begone!

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Our agents in the field (that’s yinz) have been reporting that patrons, already beset with the spending cap error message, are receiving emails in their inboxes from Hoopla. These messages remind patrons that they haven’t yet reached their five total checkouts for the month.

The issue is, of course, the aforementioned spending cap; patrons can’t hop on and check out material willy-nilly, as Hoopla is urging them to do. It’s understandable that patrons would be confused.

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to turn the email notifications off. The toggle button to do so lives in Hoopla settings. The gear-shaped settings icon lives in the lower right corner in the app and in the upper right corner in the browser version. All patrons have to do is switch it off. Here’s what it looks like:

The email tab open on the hoopla settings screen with an arrow indicating the location of the on-off toggle switch for email notifications

We are indeed beset with many troubles, but unwanted Hoopla emails don’t have to be one of them!

-Mary, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

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Gale Legal Forms

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“I need to make a Power of Attorney.” Can you help me find the right form? 

Librarians aren’t lawyers, but we can definitely solve this reference question. Enter: Gale Legal Forms.  

Gale offers a library of searchable documents that are specific to Pennsylvania. They have everything from Adoption to Powers of Attorney to Workers Compensation.  

Say your patron is looking for a Durable Power of Attorney; Gale Legal Forms will give you not just the general form, but forms related to your inquiry. Once the patron has found the specific document that they need, they can download it as a Word document and edit it as needed.  There’s no paywall, distracting ads, or guesswork involved. The site also includes a link to legal definitions, helpful topics, sample legal letters, and legal Q&A.  

Erin Weaver, Bridgeville Public Library

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Jot this down

Happy back to school, everyone! Do you remember how to divide fractions?  Me neither!

Have you ever had a student ask you for help with their essay or, even worse, a math problem? We do a lot in our roles as library staff, but some things are best left to the pros! Things like algebra. Or chemistry. Or pretty much anything other than library and information science. 

Or maybe you have a school group visiting, and you want to provide tutoring and homework support but, again, you are a library worker not a formally trained, subject-specific tutor. 

Or maybe you have ambitious programming goals and want to be able to support after-school tutoring without the gnawing fear of having to field pre-calculus questions.  

Good thing Tutor.com is here for you! 

Look at all the options on this JotForm!

The team at Tutor.com has deployed this quick form to reserve specific time slots for multiple tutors across a variety of subjects. This allows you to bring Tutor.com into any after school homework hours that you may have, host a Tutor.com walkthrough, or even hold resume/cover letter workshops for your adult community. It’s essentially like having a small army of tutors at the ready to support learners of all ages. Once a user experiences a tutoring session for the first time, they are far more likely to return and take advantage of other available resources. 

If this sounds like a good deal (it is), all you have to do is fill in this JotForm at least three days in advance of your program date.

-Mary, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

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Genealogy Help from MyHeritage Library Edition

You are probably familiar with Ancestry Library Edition for assisting patrons with genealogy research. But did you know that the PA Power Library offers EBSCO’s MyHeritage Library Edition for all Pennsylvania library card holders, too?

This multilingual family history research database includes billions of historical documents from 48 countries, millions of historical photos, public records, indexes, and additional resources that span the past five centuries.

As well as information you’d assume you would find, like census data, citizenship and naturalization records, military records, and US public records, MyHeritage also offers unique resouces like:

  • Nearly 5 billion exclusive family tree profiles from MyHeritage and Geni
  • Hundreds of millions of Nordic records
  • More than 100 million gravestone photos
  • Additional content under license including Tributes obituaries, WikiTree, BillionGraves, Canadian Headstones and many others

Plus, unlike Ancestry Library Edition, this database can be accessed remotely allowing users to search from the comfort of their own home.

More than 100 million records are added every month, making this growing collection an excellent resource for researchers.

Learn more and get started on the Power Library website.

– Richelle, Sewickley Public Library

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