Online, other local library resources suggested

To the Editor:

As a library consultant, I like to share tips on how to avoid disasters and how to improve services in libraries, but for residents of Westminster, I feel its time to share: how to use your library when your library is closed. The Forbush Memorial announced that it will be closed at least until the end of February due to a burst pipe which caused three floors of the library to flood.

Until it reopens:

1. Use another library. As a Forbush Library C/ WMARS (Central Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing) System cardholder you can use most of the other libraries in Central and Western Massachusetts. I hope you will take this untimely inconvenience to enjoy all of the newly renovated libraries in our area. In the past ten years, the following libraries have had facelifts: Leominster (amazing collection and awesome renovation), Gardner (great comfortable chairs and so close to home), and Princeton (ambiance is superb, they always have what you are looking for). If you want to travel a little farther, try Harvard, Acton, Groton, and of course the amazing Worcester Public Library.

2. Search before you travel. Bookmark: http://www. cwmars.org and use the site to search for the location of the book and its availability before you get in the car.

3. Use electronic resources: Start at C/W MARS (http:// www.cwmars.org) page to download audios and ebooks.

4. Try online resources including: Community Information, Digital Book Catalog, Digital Treasures, Massachusetts Library Links, and Reference Databases by connecting at http://www.cwmars.org/refdb.html

5. You may use the online newspapers and magazines provided by the state at http://mblc.state.ma.us/books/ magazine/index.php. These include: The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Sentinel & Enterprise, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, The New York Times and others. Magazines are often online before they even hit the newsstands.

6. University of Massachusetts in Amherst W.E.B. Dubois Library, a library with millions of books in a 28-story building, the tallest on campus allows all Massachusetts residents access to the collection. In addition they have an amazing learning commons with hundreds of computers, which will link you to the databases that the University funds ($3 million per year) on every subject in the universe. The library is open 24-hours a day, seven days a week. See more about the library at: http://www. library.umass.edu/.

7. And beyond the state, how about the world. Worldcat is at http://www.worldcat.org/ where you can search for one billion items in 10,000 libraries. Put in your zip code and "voila" the library nearest you owning that item appears. Very nifty.

And remember: "Without a library, a town is just a bunch of houses," Keith Fiels, Exec. Director ALA.

Barbara Friedman

Westminster