Coolock Library is Age friendly

A big congratulations to Amanda, Paul and Laura for all their hard work making Coolock Library Age friendly! 

Some of the improvements include a dedicated age friendly section, proper visible signage throughout the library, designated easy to rise seating areas, and increased font size on book receipts. Other age friendly initiatives include a collaboration with Age Action to provide computer classes, and several daytime groups such as art, crochet, patchwork, knitting, and a morning book club. 

Browse all our events.

ACORN Tablets

ACORN tablets are available for use in Coolock Library. For more information on this scheme, contact Coolock Library.  Read about the Acorn tablet.

Acorn tablets provide access to most common digital tasks, such as taking photos or contacting your family.  The main strength of the tablet is the simple layout and plenty of guidance for those less familiar with technology. There are four main menu options: talk, photos, calendar and explore, with an Acorn button in the centre. Tap that and you get an overview of your day – what time it is, what the weather forecast is, notifications to deal with. See image below. 

You can also access local content – news or public events, for example, and add them to your calendar for the future – from that main screen.

Talk brings you to shortcuts for your contacts, messages, emails and calls, with the latter only possible between the tablet and other Acorn users – family, friends with the companion app who you have added to your list of contact. It covers voice and video calls, and you can call or message Acorn’s support team for help from this section too. The chat interface allows users to add photographs too.

The Photos section has two tabs: Camera and My Album. The instructions on the camera are clear; two buttons urge you to tap to record video, or tap to capture photo. The zoom is clearly marked too, so there’s no need to try to interpret symbols. 

As the description suggests, calendar is where all your appointments are located, along with local events you have added, and explore covers everything else, from the internet to apps.

The tablet, as you’d expect, can be connected via wifi. But Acorn also offers its own mobile data service, via an integrated SIM card, which may be useful for those who haven’t quite made the jump to always-on internet in their home, either by choice or because the services aren’t available.

C-Pen

We are delighted to make C-Pens available for lending from five of our branch libraries, as part of our assistive technology services. The C-Pen is a reader pen which scans and then reads text aloud to assist with independent reading. Reader pens are designed to promote active independent reading, understanding, and learning. People with dyslexia, aphasia or other reading difficulties, those learning languages or those with vision problems may find these pens to be of use for home, study or work.

Have a look on our website for a full list of our online resources. In the meantime read the Online resources menu blog. 

If you have any queries or if you registered online and can’t access any of these resources, you can also contact us at [email protected].

BorrowBox

On Borrowbox there is a wide range of eBooks and eAudiobooks available at the click of a button. Read our blog Downloading Borrowbox eBooks to a Computer and eReader if you need more guidance. 

Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN.

Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.

Computer Literacy 

Computer Literacy Basics Training. This course slowly and patiently opens up the world of modern technology and teaches us the basics of computer use. The course is called Computer Literacy Basics Training (PC) and it’s found in our Infobase Learning Cloud (formerly Hoonuit).

Language

You can even Learn a new language with online resources

Lifelong Learning

Building skills is a constant in an ever-changing world. The new normal will be tech-driven. Read our blog: Lifelong Learning: skill up. 

Magazines

In Libby, you'll have access to over 3,000 digital magazines with a rolling three years of back issues (where available). There are no magazine checkout limits, so you'll be able to borrow as many as you like. Introducing Libby for magazines blog. 

Music

You can listen to music for FREE. Oxford Music Online contains 1,000s of authoritative, peer-reviewed articles with rich supporting materials including bibliographies, media, and links to related resources.

Medici TV is the world's leading classical music channel featuring hundreds of concerts, operas, and ballets is now available for FREE with your Dublin City Libraries card. 

Choose from an extensive selection of concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries and master classes:

• 3,500+ musical works
• 2,700+ films
• 150+ live events each year

Medici TV has a user-friendly interface and powerful search engine, you can access thousands of classical music programmes from Baroque to Contemporary music. It also provides access synopsis, casts and performer biographies.

Discover recordings from the 1940s to present day. Watch and learn on any device, whenever and wherever you want.

Read our articles: Music in Dublin City Libraries and Music reference resources

Lifelong Learning

Building skills is a constant in an ever-changing world. The new normal will be tech-driven. Read our blog: Lifelong Learning: skill up.