8 non-book things you can check out from L.A. libraries

“They have been choosing up tax info and getting tutored in English and testing films and tracing their household historical past. They have been sitting within the library, simply because it was a nice place to sit down, and typically they have been doing issues that had nothing to do with the library.” — Susan Orlean, “The Library Guide”

In her ode to the fire-ravaged outdated library in downtown Los Angeles (and to libraries on the whole), Orlean factors out one thing that’s straightforward to overlook: These beloved literary repositories provide way over simply books. And on the identical low value of zero {dollars}. All you want is a library card. For those who don’t have a kind of, nicely, they’re free too.

Orlean was writing concerning the unique Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), which at present boasts 73 branches. These hubs, together with the various L.A. County and unbiased library areas within the metropolis, can hook you up with nifty gadgets equivalent to energy sanders, telescopes and free passes to the zoo. (However as any librarian will inform you — in a solemn tone as she lowers her glasses — reference books should stay on the premises.)

Listed below are eight stuff you in all probability didn’t know you possibly can take a look at from L.A. libraries. Simply keep in mind to return them in a single to 3 weeks.

1. A ukulele

The LAPL bought fairly a response to the current TikTok video it posted about lending out ukuleles. Every instrument comes with a case, a e book of chords and a tuner. They’re obtainable at 17 of LAPL’s 73 areas.

Marc Horton, the librarian on the San Pedro department who got here up with the thought, instructed The Occasions in an e-mail that ukuleles are the one devices the library affords. He selected the Hawaiian mini-guitars as a result of they’re small, cheap and low-maintenance, “versus, say, trumpets,” and since they’re a “gateway instrument … a forgiving, unintimidating” piece that may spark curiosity in different methods to make music.

Horton’s primary inspiration, although, was Beatles legend George Harrison, who as soon as known as ukuleles “the one instrument you possibly can’t play and never snicker!”

Particulars: LAPL

2. A digital actuality headset

The Altadena Library’s two branches provide a “Library of Issues,” together with digital actuality headsets, which children will love for the video games (equivalent to “Star Wars Vader Immortal”) and grown-ups will dig due to Nationwide Geographic Discover, which permits wearers to expertise Machu Picchu or Antarctica. Additionally amongst Altadena’s “issues” you possibly can borrow: Orion telescopes and mountain climbing backpacks, which embrace native path guides, a primary support package and a flashlight.

Particulars: Altadena Library

3. A go to state parks

Contemplating a day journey to the sapphire waters of Crystal Cove (close to Newport Seaside)? Headed as much as Huge Sur, and the cliffs of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park? Your native library could make each journeys simpler with a go for “one passenger automobile with capability of 9 folks or much less, or one highway-licensed motorbike.”

There’s often a waitlist for these, so plan forward. Some state parks don’t take part on this program, however the overwhelming majority do. Right here’s a complete list of both, and a useful map.

Particulars: LAPL, L.A. County Library

4. Museum admission

The Uncover & Go program at each LAPL and the L.A. County Library permits card holders to make on-line reservations at choose museums and points of interest, as much as three months upfront.

Collaborating companions embrace the Broad, La Brea Tar Pits, the L.A. Zoo, the Pure Historical past Museum of L.A. County and the brand-new Academy Museum of Movement Photos, the place, for a further payment, visitors can strut throughout the stage on the (simulated) Dolby Theatre and settle for a (duplicate) Oscar.

Particulars: LAPL, L.A. County Library

5 branches of the L.A. County Library (Compton, Lancaster, Norwalk, Rosemead and San Fernando) provide instruments “to assist our clients study new expertise and full new and present initiatives.”

Cookware, stitching machines, gardening instruments, energy instruments, bike-repair implements, extension cords of assorted lengths — in case you want it, they’ve in all probability bought it. There are greater than 100 items obtainable. (A library spokesperson declined to touch upon whether or not its “mild bulb changer package” is well-liked amongst politicians.)

Cardholders have to be 18 and prepared to return what they borrowed inside seven days.

Particulars: L.A. County Library

6. A laptop computer or iPad mini

Each LAPL and the L.A. County Library provide Chromebooks and cell Wi-Fi scorching spots for checkout. Every laptop computer is supplied with instruments equivalent to Adobe Acrobat Reader and with Google packages equivalent to Calendar, Docs and Drive.

Each libraries provide coaching and details about how you can use computer systems for job looking out. The Work Prepared program permits debtors to maintain the gadgets for six weeks.

For youthful internet browsers, the town library carries iPad minis at 4 areas (Chatsworth, Sylmar, Vernon and the R.L. Stevenson department in Boyle Heights) which are loaded with actions, video games and studying instruments for teenagers.

Whichever gadget you borrow, the librarians ask that you just return them in individual as an alternative of slipping them into the e book drop.

Particulars: LAPL, L.A. County Library

7. A U.S. citizenship package

The county library people name it “citizenship in a bag,” and the very concept of it makes this cussed believer within the American experiment a little bit misty-eyed.

Inside every package is “a wide range of instructional supplies” to assist aspiring Individuals put together for the naturalization examination, together with flash playing cards and multimedia instruments.

One of the best half is the stuff that debtors hold, with no due date: “step-by-step directions on the U.S. naturalization course of, reference supplies on the rights and tasks of U.S. residents, and official citizenship varieties, together with the applying for naturalization.”

Particulars: L.A. County Library

8. Nature exploration gear

Summer time’s nearly over, however it’s all the time a superb time for teenagers to get their outside journey on. Supplied in partnership with the Pure Historical past Museum of L.A. County, nature exploration baggage “embrace scientists’ instruments like a magnifying glass and specimen jars, and a Area Information of ideas and tips that will help you uncover animals and vegetation.”

Obtainable at 5 county library branches (San Fernando, Metropolis Terrace, Quartz Hill, South Whittier and Compton), the kits might be checked out for as much as three weeks.

Particulars: L.A. County Library