Columbia State Community College’s John W. Finney Memorial Library recently established a Lifelong Learning tab on their website for community enrichment.

“There is a ton of information available for free on the web,” said Anne Scott, Columbia State library director. “The Lifelong Learning tab exists in order to highlight the resources that are reputable.”

The Lifelong Learning tab is a collection of research-based, public-access research materials and resources compiled by Scott. The collection is comprised of different governmental, academic and museum databases, as well as many public domain collections and databases.

Some of the resources, such as the Bill of Rights Institute, NASA eBooks and the Library of Congress are national resources available free to the public. The tab also includes international resources such as Europeana, and resources from universities such as Volunteer Voices from the University of Tennessee.

Other sites, such as Libravox or Public Domain Movies, allow users to view or download public domain media without a login. There are even educational children’s resources available such as Sci Jinks, and even many of the more teacher-oriented sites include lesson plans and resources for educators.

“I hope our community enjoys the wealth of free information offered through our Lifelong Learning tab,” said Scott. “The purpose is to support and encourage the research interests of the public and our academic community by highlighting databases on a multitude of topics. We encourage the public to visit us to sign up for a Community Patron card to check out our print titles as well.”

As of now, the Lifelong Learning tab contains 72 resources. Scott hopes to add more in the future to continue to make these materials more accessible to students and the community.

The Finney library also has in-person offerings that are beneficial to the community. Community Patron cards are available that allow guests to check out up to two library items for two weeks at a time. The Ask a Librarian tab on the library website also provides a space for general questions, requests for books, scheduling library instruction and more.

The Lifelong Learning tab can be accessed at www.ColumbiaState.edu/LifelongLearners.

The John W. Finney Memorial Library is located on the Columbia Campus at 1665 Hampshire Pike and is open from Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. during the fall and spring semesters. For more information visit www.ColumbiaState.edu/Library.