By Robin Deffendall
It’s time to set my resolutions for 2023. So far, my resolutions are to get healthier, manage money better, finish writing my book, eat at home more and date Jason Momoa. A few of those may be achievable.
If you’re planning your resolutions, the Cumberland County Public Library offers 10 attainable goals with free tools to help you achieve them:
- Explore your family’s history with free access to Ancestry and Heritage Quest and research military records through Fold3. Specialists in the Local & State History Room at the Headquarters Library, located at 300 Maiden Lane downtown, can help you learn to use these helpful tools to research family history.
- Learn a language. Similar to Babble, Transparent Languages lets you study over 100 languages and dialects, including American Sign Language and English as a Second Language.
- Fix your own car with diagrams and instructions printed from the online Chilton Library.
- Bulletproof your résumé with Cypress Résumé Builder, then send it to Brainfuse Adult Learning Center for helpful suggestions.
- Get free educational support for your child. The library offers students live online tutoring through Brainfuse Help Now. We provide free e-book downloads via NCKids Digital Library and streaming interactive books from TumbleBooks and TumbleMath.
- Expand your reading horizons (and win prizes!) with the library’s monthly Reading Challenge or get exciting suggestions from expert library staff using our BookMatch service. Many titles are available as e-books and e-audio, so you can take them with you wherever you go.
- Study for career and educational subjects with practice tests and study guides from LearningExpress Library.
- Save money on streaming channels. Stream music with Freegal or videos from NC Digital Library and Films on Demand. Or go old school: borrow from our massive statewide DVD collection.
- Write your novel. Join our writers’ group, Write On, Right Now, for monthly in-person meetings to ensure you don’t have to write in a vacuum.
- If you love any of these ideas, show your support for your library. Consider donating to the Library Endowment Trust or join the Friends of the Library. Check out materials. Bring a child to a story time. Attend programs in person or online, on subjects including finances, technology, health, music and the arts, history and more. Then, tell your friends how you did it all with your free Cumberland County Public Library card!
For details about these, or any of our services and programs, call 910-483-7727, or visit www.cumberlandcountync.gov/library.
Robin Deffendall is the adult services manager at the North Regional Library.
