Spanish Conversation Group

Expand your speaking skills by practicing the language in a welcoming atmosphere. This event, hosted by fluent Spanish speaker Marilyn Horn, meets twice each month on Zoom. New participants always welcome – please email Lauren Redfield at lredfield@durhamlibrary.org for information.

Looking for more language learning resources? Check out Transparent Language, our online language learning tool.

Why Wait? Download an Ebook or Audiobook Right Now

The Library offers a wide variety of free e-books, digital magazines and audiobooks, and streaming music and video, all available with your Durham Public Library card and many available instantly.

OverDrive/Libby
Best-selling and award-winning fiction and nonfiction books, audiobooks, and magazines. You may borrow up to 10 items at a time. Over 3,000 popular magazines are available, with no wait lists and no item limits. Use the “Available Now” filter to find currently available items.

hoopla
Always available movies, TV shows, music, books, comics, and audiobooks. You may borrow up to 4 items per calendar month.

The Palace Project
Thousands of free eBooks and audiobooks from the Connecticut State Library and Durham’s digital collections in the Palace Project app. 

Looking for a Job?

Free Online Career Assistance

JobNow™ provides library patrons with a host of services to help in every step of the job search process.  Job coaches are available to help patrons with any and all job search-related questions.  In addition to helping beginning job seekers pinpoint their desired career field, coaches can also provide constructive suggestions on resumes, help write a professional cover letter, and give live interview practice and feedback.

The link is available 24/7/365 in the library or from your home — click here or on the JobNow! icon on the left-hand side of the Library website home page.

Looking for a job? Use the Career Resources to begin your job search. Create your resume and get expert feedback. Prepare for your interview.

Not sure how to start your job search? Use eParachute to help you discover the career of your dreams.

Writing your resume? Begin by using one of the templates or the document builder in OptimalResume. Then use our Resume Lab to send it to a job coach and receive feedback and revisions to help strengthen your resume. FREE Online Career Assistance

Prepare for your interview. Read through our tips and connect with a live job coach to get ready for your interview.

Going back to school? Want to brush up on academic skills? Select “Adult Learners” from the menu to access GED prep, US Citizenship Test prep, resume assistance, Microsoft Office support, and Career Resources. Maestros en español disponible

Homebound Delivery Service

The Durham Public Library provides books and other materials for residents of Durham who are physically unable to visit the library because of a temporary or permanent disability.

How to apply: Applicants should complete the Durham Public Library Homebound Delivery Application and a reading interest form. Click here to complete the form online or call us at (860) 349-9544, ext. 5 to request a physical form.

How is delivery arranged?  Materials will be delivered by a library representative on a schedule convenient for the library, but no more than once per month. When we receive your enrollment form, we will contact you to discuss delivery.

What are the borrowing guidelines? Any circulating item may be borrowed by our homebound patrons, with a limit of 25 items per delivery. There is no fee for the delivery service and overdue fees will not be charged. The Library’s standard fee schedule shall apply for damaged or lost items.

For more information: Please contact Christine Michaud at (860) 349-9544, ext. 5 or cmichaud@durhamlibrary.org if you have questions about this service.

Wi-Fi Hotspots

In order to expand Internet access to Durham residents, the Library has established a Wi-Fi hotspot lending program. The hotspots are provided by T-Mobile and funded by a gift from Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and PALS: The Friends of the Durham Public Library.

No internet at home? Borrow ours for: school projects and papers, job searching online, and connecting your tablet or laptop.

On a long car trip? Have the kids in the backseat streaming movies, music or other online content.

On Vacation? Road trip, camping, or grandmas house with no internet? Bring it with you!

Loans and Holds

Hotspots are available to Durham Public Library card holders ages 18 and up with fines of less than $10.00. Patrons must present their valid Durham Public Library card at the time of checkout.

Checkouts are limited to one hotspot per household at any given time. Hotspots may be checked out for one week and cannot be renewed.

Hotspots may be reserved by placing a hold online or by calling the library. Devices will be held for two days. If the device is not picked up by the end of the second day, the hold will be cancelled and the device will move to the next person in line.

At the time of checkout, patrons must sign a Hotspot Use Agreement, acknowledging the Library’s Hotspot Use Policy.

The Library reserves the right to refuse lending to patrons who abuse equipment or who repeatedly return Hotspots late.

Hotspots must be picked up and returned at the Durham Public Library circulation desk. Hotspots must never be returned to another library or placed in the book drops.

Hotspot Use

Patrons are responsible for the proper care and use of the Wi-Fi hotspot. We recommend that patrons have a basic working knowledge of the device on checkout. If you encounter any technical problems, contact Library Director Christine Michaud at cmichaud@durhamlibrary.org or 860-349-9544, ext. 5.

The Library is not responsible for any liability, damages, or expense resulting from use or misuse of the hotspot and its connection to other electronic devices, or data loss resulting from use of the Hotspot. Any use of the device for illegal purposes, unauthorized copying of copyright-protected material in any format, or transmission of threatening, harassing, defamatory or obscene materials is strictly prohibited.

Wi-Fi service will be turned off if the hotspot is more than two days overdue, rendering the device unusable.

Loss or Damage

Overdue fines of $5 per day, to a maximum of $20, will be charged for late hotspots.

Hotspots that are two weeks or more overdue are considered lost. Patrons will be charged a $100.00 replacement fee if the hotspot is lost or damaged.

Patrons will be charged a replacement fee not to exceed $20 if a charging block or case is lost or damaged.

Friday, September 20 at noon

Do you enjoy cooking and love good food? If so, join our new Cookbook Club! This is a combination of a book club and a potluck lunch. Each month, we will choose a cookbook (or a small selection of related cookbooks) which each of the participants will select a recipe and prepare it for the group to taste. We are looking to hold nice discussions and enjoy good food and company! If you are a food enthusiast, please register early as the number of participants is limited.

Copies of the book are available for registered participants at the Circulation Desk. In order to facilitate a range of courses, you will be assigned to prepare either an entree, an appetizer or side, or dessert. Plates, utensils and water will be provided; please bring serving utensils for your dish.

September’s cookbook is: Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking by Jacques Pepin. 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

New Resource – AtoZ World Travel

Planning a trip? The Durham Public Library is pleased to announce that it has recently added AtoZ World Travel to its online reference offerings. This new library resource includes 202 world city travel guides covering 67 topics each. The travel guides cover a multitude of topics that are of interest to those planning their international travel. Topics include pre-trip planning, points of interest, excursions, neighborhoods, restaurants, nightlife, as well as health and safety.

Anyone can access AtoZ World Travel using the library’s computers, and Durham patrons can access it from anywhere in the world from the library’s portal at www.durhamlibrary.org or directly at AtoZ World Travel with their library card.

AtoZ World Travel was designed for world travelers, schools and universities, global businesses, and anyone who wants to prepare for their trip abroad.

May 13 – This Other Eden

Join us for a lively discussion of This Other Eden by Paul Harding! Monday May 13 at 6:30 p.m. Copies of the book will be available to be checked out at the circulation desk.

Registration required.

About This Other Eden

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Tinkers, a novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast.

In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys’ descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland.

During the tumultuous summer of 1912, Matthew Diamond, a retired, idealistic but prejudiced schoolteacher-turned-missionary, disrupts the community’s fragile balance through his efforts to educate its children. His presence attracts the attention of authorities on the mainland who, under the influence of the eugenics-thinking popular among progressives of the day, decide to forcibly evacuate the island, institutionalize its residents, and develop the island as a vacation destination. Beginning with a hurricane flood reminiscent of the story of Noah’s Ark, the novel ends with yet another Ark.

In prose of breathtaking beauty and power, Paul Harding brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters: Iris and Violet McDermott, sisters raising three orphaned Penobscot children; Theophilus and Candace Larks and their brood of vagabond children; the prophetic Zachary Hand to God Proverbs, a Civil War veteran who lives in a hollow tree; and more. A spellbinding story of resistance and survival, This Other Eden is an enduring testament to the struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of intolerance and injustice.