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Quiet voices not required in library music lab
Members of the Choir for Leyden High Schools perform during a Holiday Open House at the Franklin Park Public Library Thursday, Dec. 13. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 21, 2013 2:33PM
FRANKLIN PARK — If you want to create music in Franklin Park, you can now skip the music studio and head straight to the library.
“That’s not uncommon anymore,” Reference Assistant Michelle Mitchell said. “Libraries have a lot of resources people don’t know about.”
The Franklin Park Library showed off some of its newer resources Dec. 13 at a Holiday Open House, including a digital media lab complete with video camera and a green screen similar to the screen TV weathercasters use to project images behind them.
The digital media lab also contains software for creating music and tools for animation and editing photos.
“I think the word is spreading slowly but surely (about new resources),” said Librarian Joyce Arellano, who along with Mitchell organized the open house.
“More people are getting interested, particularly students,” Arellano said. “They have to do a video project at some point in the year.”
In addition to students, established musicians have used the library’s equipment to create a video, which was posted on YouTube.
“The common misperception is that we just have books,” Mitchell said. “Its so much more than that.”
Librarians will offer help with gadgets such as e-readers used for digital books. “They don’t come with paper instruction manuals and that scares a lot of people from playing with them,” Mitchell said.
The library has seen an increase in borrowing of digital books. That doesn’t affect the borrowing of printed books the way you might think.
“Statistically, when you see people checking out e-books, you see them checking out more paper books, interestingly,” Mitchell said.
This year the library also subscribed to two databases. The first is Universal Call and offers hundreds of courses. Users are connected with an actual instructor who will interact with them online.
“They are certified teachers,” Arellano said.
The other database is Transparent Language. It’s aimed at beginner to intermediate speakers who want to learn a language. More than 80 languages are offered to native English, Spanish, Polish and speakers of other languages. There also is a mobile app that can be used outside the library. Both databases are free for registered library patrons.
