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Orangeville Public Library offers tools for learning this school year

September 3, 2026   ·   0 Comments

Back-to-school season brings plenty of excitement to September. The days begin to feel different, routines return, and a new energy fills our community. Whether you are heading into a classroom or simply noticing the change of season, you may feel ready to learn something new.

At Orangeville Public Library, we are coming into the school year after a wonderful summer. A record-breaking number of children and families registered for our TD Summer Reading Club. That matters because summer reading is not just a pleasant way to pass an afternoon. It helps children maintain their skills, build confidence, and return to school seeing reading as something they choose themselves. We loved welcoming this energy at the library all summer.

Of course, the library’s support for learning does not end when the backpacks come out.

Reading and literacy remain at the heart of what we do, and our staff is always happy to help a young reader find the right one. Sometimes that means a favourite series; sometimes a graphic novel, a book about dinosaurs, or a story that is slightly easier or more challenging than the last one. The right book is the one a child wants to open.

We also have a few less traditional tools. Wonderbooks look like regular print books but include a built-in audiobook, so children can listen while following along with the text. Launchpads are borrowable tablets preloaded with reading activities, stories, and games. They do not require internet access, and everything on them has been selected with learning in mind. Both can be especially useful for children who benefit from hearing, seeing, and doing at the same time.

Our digital library can help, too. Libby offers ebooks and audiobooks for all ages, while TumbleBookLibrary brings picture books and read-alongs to life with narration, animation, and sound. If the difficult part is deciding what to read next, NoveList can suggest books based on titles or authors you already enjoy. There is also a version designed for children, which lets families search by age, interest, and reading level.

Learning online also means knowing how to judge what we find there. Kermode Education, available through the library’s online Learning and Research collection, helps families, students and lifelong learners build media literacy skills and think more carefully about the accuracy, bias and trustworthiness of online information. That feels especially useful at a time when young minds are overwhelmed with online information and misinformation. Kermode helps build a skill set that helps us determine whether what we are reading or seeing is correct.

And back-to-school learning is not only for school-aged members of the community. University students, job seekers, people returning to work and those simply curious about a new skill can use LinkedIn Learning for free with a library card. It includes thousands of video courses on business, technology, Microsoft software, photography, design, and many other topics. You can work through a full course or watch one short lesson to solve the problem directly in front of you.

Fall programs are also on the way. Keep an eye on our website, social media, and events calendar as the schedule is released. There will be opportunities to read, make, explore and connect at both Mill Street and Alder.

The start of school can be exciting, daunting, hectic, and sometimes all three. Your library card can help by providing access to books, technology, and learning tools for a successful school year.

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