Ebooks and Audio Books

Are you looking for a good read this Summer? There are move ebooks and audio books than you could hope to read in a lifetime, free and at your fingertips. All you need is your Terrebonne Parish library card!

To explore the options we have available, go to our website and click on the "eServices" tab at the bottom of the page. There, you will find direct links to all of our ebook and audio book services. They all work slightly differently, so let's do a bit of a refresher!

Overdrive allows users to check out ebooks and audio books, and is one of our most popular and oldest ebook services. OverDrive allows you to have 5 items checked out at once. There's no limit to the number of items you can borrow on OverDrive! OverDrive has an app, and you can choose from the traditional 'OverDrive for Libraries' app, or the brand new Libby app. Both will reach the same content. 

Hoopla is the newest of Terrebonne's ebook services. You can check out seven titles each month. These titles include not only ebooks and audio books, but also comics, movies, TV shows, and even video courses from The Great Courses! Best of all, there is no waiting for Hoopla items. All of the items are available all the time. You'll never have to place a hold!

Freading is another great source for ebooks with no waiting. Freading has a wide selection of ebooks and is an ideal source for choosing your next book club pick. With a weekly limit of six items, there's plenty to keep you reading on Freading!

Finally, something for the little people in your life! TumbleBooks is an excellent platform for kids' ebooks. With fun features like Read Alongs and animated story books, kids will be entertained for hours. TumbleBooks also has math stories, videos, puzzles, games and graphic novels to keep your kids busy. I like to share it with my kids on long car trips. It's screen time, but it's also reading!

Spring into Home Improvements with Flipster!

Spring has sprung, and it's a great time for a refresh of your space. While spring cleaning is a given, why not go that extra step before the real heat hits, and complete some home improvements? 

Flipster is a great place to start getting ideas on how to redecorate your home or even add major home improvements, and the best part is, it's provided for FREE, 24/7 to you with your Terrebonne Parish Library card! There's no need to buy that magazine that's been tempting you at the checkout counter. Even after the new issue comes out, Flipster provides older issues of its magazines going back several years. So you aren't limited to the most current issue, either! 

Here are a few great picks to help out with that home improvement projects! Happy remodeling! 

Free Documenting Bayou Culture Workshop Series!

Terrebonne Parish, and the Bayou Region in general, has a rich cultural heritage like no other. Essential to keeping that culture alive is to hand down the stories and traditions that make this area unique. With the Documenting Bayou Culture Workshop Series, we are aiming to do just that.

This free series of four workshops will teach participants to observe, record, and document the culture of their own communities. Workshops are hands on and build upon one another, though attendance at all four is not required. Registration IS required, however. Please contact Brigid Laborie at blaborie@mytpl.org or (985) 876-5861, extension 242.

Want more information? A complete description of all four of the workshops, and the Artists Workshop, is included below.

Spring is Around the Corner!

Though it may not feel like it today, Spring is just around the corner. March 20th marks the first day of Spring, and with the last frost of the  year hopefully passed, many of you may be planning to get your spring gardens planted. Titles from Overdrive are a great resource for helping you decide what and when to plant so you don't miss that vital time frame. 

 Are you new to gardening? Then Gardening Basics for Dummies is an excellent choice. This book breaks down everything you need to know about starting and maintaining your first garden. Even if you've been gardening for some time, this title is worth a read. You never know what you don't know!





Are you tight on space? Try Gardening in Miniature by Janit Calvo. Just reading the book's description on OverDrive has made me want to pick up this adorable new hobby: 

 "The next garden trend combines the joy of gardening with the magic of miniatures. Gardening in Miniature is a complete guide to creating lush, living, small-scale gardens. It has everything you need to pick up this new hobby, including scaled down garden designs, techniques for creating tiny hardscapes, miniature garden care and maintenance, tips on choosing containers, how to buy the right plants, and where to find life-like accessories. Inspiring step-by-step projects feature basic skills that can be recreated in any number of designs, like a tiny patio, a trellis, a pond, and a secret garden."

If you're like me and you can't for the life of you (and your plants) keep anything green alive, try cacti and succulents! These hardy plants are beautiful and require much less watering and care than other types of plants.

 Plus, as a bonus, succulents are not too difficult to propagate for sharing with your fellow succulent enthusiasts! 

Black History @ Your Library

February is Black History Month, and Terrebonne Parish Library has a multitude of high quality, reliable resources to help you learn something new about African American history. A great place to start is with the Salem History title, Great Lives from History: African Americans. From Aaliyah to Whitney Young, this digital version of a five volume set includes short biographies of 844 notable African Americans achievers. This resource is fantastic for those who are looking for someone to research outside of well known leaders such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. and provides a broader look at Black contributions to history, science, government and culture in America. 

In addition to Great Lives From History, Salem Press also publishes the Defining Documents in American History series.  Two titles in the library's digital collection which would be especially helpful to those interested in Black history are Defining Documents in American History: Civil War and Defining Documents in American History: The 1960s. These pivotal times for African Americans are explored in depth through primary source documents and are ideal for use in the classroom. 

In addition to text resources, the Terrebonne Parish Library is featuring books by African Americans on its Facebook page daily throughout the month of February, and libraries will have their own displays of titles chosen by staff at most locations. If you have any questions about your research, don't hesitate to call the Reference desk at the Main Library at (985) 876-5861, option (2).

Just an Old Fashioned Love Song

Looking to make your Valentine's Day a little sweeter, but you don't want to drop a lot of cash? As always, your library is here for you! Serenade your sweetheart with some free tunes from Freegal, With five free MP3 downloads per week, you can make a mini playlist to set the mood (and keep the songs forever!). Try some of these suggestions to get you started: 

Five songs not enough? You can borrow whole albums from Hoopla by using one of your five free downloads per month! Albums will stay checked out to you for one week - long enough to romance your way to Mardi Gras time!

Bayou Book Challenge

The Bayou Book Challenge has begun! Challenge yourself and your loved ones to read more this year by registering at the Bayou Book Challenge page of our website. If you meet your goal in 2019, you will be invited to the EXCLUSIVE Bayou Book Celebration in January 2020! Details for the Bayou Book Celebration are still being worked out, but it's sure to be a fun time! The ONLY way to be invited is to read! 

The goals are set as follows: 

Picture Book Readers: 250 books
Chapter Book Readers: 12, 26, or 52 books (you decide)

More information and registration can be found at
 http://mytpl.org/bayoubookchallenge