Universal Class

As I mentioned this past week, I have been exploring Scout, a Pierce County Library System online program for adults. In my exploration, I have discovered an online education website that is free through the library. I knew Tacoma Library System had it, but I did not know that PCLS did - as you can imagine, I was ecstatic!

The name of the website is Universal Class. If you have a Pierce County Library card, you should be able to access it for free. I hope that this information will be useful to those in Pierce County as well as those who may be interested to see if this option is available through the local public library system.

Source

I have been trying to keep up with my study habits this summer and thought, "what better way than to use online education?" I browsed the website for the kinds of courses it hosts and almost immediately signed up for Prenatal Care. I wanted to see what the courses would be like and thought the prenatal class would give me a good head-start on next semester's rotation through labor and delivery.

The courses are designed for anyone with a high school education and offer unlimited time for completion. In every lesson, there is the information which can be printed for later use as well as an exam (that is more like a quiz in my opinion). Some lessons have assignments which have the student review what has been discussed in the lesson. Some courses have more lessons than others. The course instructors tend to answer emails and return grades in a timely manner. The longest I have had to wait for a response was two days - and that was over a weekend.
Currently I am taking Organic Chemistry 101, Alzheimer's Disease 101, and All About Herbs. I have completed Prenatal Care and am concurrently taking a nutrition class through the Tacoma Public Library System's online education website.

Scout: Explore - Create - Share

I have always loved libraries, but I am definitely starting to appreciate them more now. The Pierce County Library has recently begun an online program called Scout in which members are encouraged to explore different subjects, create works of art and projects, and share experiences.

The program rewards members with points that add up to badges. The leaderboard allows members to show the points and badges standings in the community to encourage others to continue their progress with Scout.

Badges include Book Reinvention, Transit Authority, Bubblesmith, and more. They involve all areas and ages of life, but the program itself is particularly geared towards adults. Each badge consists of various activities that are worth a certain amount of points. For instance, in the Rebelious Reading badge one activity is to find a challenged or banned book to read. Some activities are more time consuming than others to complete, but each badge requires some form of community interaction.

I am enjoying Scout very much - it is broadening my mind to ideas to add to the List. I encourage everyone in the Pierce County area to join in the fun. Click on one of the links above or visit scout.pcls.us for more information.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

My local library has a tower shelf of books each with green three-leaf clover stickers labelled "Lucky Day." These books are available for just a few weeks without the possibility of renewal. The Lucky Day books are thus labelled because of their popularity and/or recent date of publication. Today I, for lack of a better-fitting exclamation, scored majorly.

The most recent book by Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, was available for checkout! I began reading it in the car to my brother - skipping over the morbid parts, of course - and had even my mother enrapt in the story before we returned home.

The novel follows a middle-aged man back into his childhood to the small Sussex town where he met Lettie Hempstock and her family. Unbelievable events occur as a result of their friendship and leaves the not-so-young man to pull them from the depths of his memory years later.

It is not a coming-of-age tale, but the fantastical journey that Gaiman spins is likely to change any young reader it encounters - even those young of heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book (considering I read it over the course of 7 hours, it is obvious) and I recommend it to all those in need of trust, courage, and consolation.