Saturday, November 24, 2007

FREE On-Demand Book & Video Downloads, Free Movie Rentals, and More

This week I will be talking to you about all of the seemingly untapped resources of FREE items at your local library, as well as the libraries online.

Many of you may not be aware that your local library stocks all of the movies that you can find at you local video store (probably more movies than your video store - my local library boasts a collection of 14,000+). All of the movies can be checked out "At No Charge" to you. The only requirement is a library card, which is also FREE. Most libraries allow you to keep the movies for a week or more at a time and have minimal late fees (i.e. I have a 3 day grace period and then my late fee is $0.10 a day). One drawback to the collection at my library is that they only have a few copies of each movie. But, if there is one I want I can place it on hold and they will call me when it is returned (this takes, at most, a week or two).

Your local library is also a great source for books, books on tape/DVD, music cds, Free classes/storytimes for your children, Free wi-fi, Free internet access on the library computers, Free gaming (my library has gaming systems for use at the library, as well as competition nights) and I am sure that I am probably forgetting something.

Okay, so you don't want to have go anywhere, but still want to read a book or watch a movie from the library. There is a myriad of online library resources. I am only going to be able to brush the surface in this blog by covering a few of my favorites.

First I will discuss MyLibrarydv. This is a newer service available from your local library. You can access it through you local library's homepage. What is it? "MyLibrarydv is a unique on-demand video service created by Recorded Books in partnership with your local library. You can access 100's of hours of DVD quality programming on topics such as cooking, travel, and health as well as classic movies, documentaries and more. Best of all this service is FREE to you as part of your library account." My library is also partnered with a digital media library where you can download books to play on your electronic devices, such as i-pods and laptops OR download the text to read the old way;)

Next I will tell you about the internet archive organization at www.archive.org. Here you will find they have archived moving images (videos), Live music, other audio, web page archives (for previous versions of web pages), and texts. This is a pretty robust site and I feel like I still have more to explore in what they have to offer. "The Archive's Moving Images section is a library of free movies, films, and videos. This library contains thousands of digital movies which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to videos of every genre uploaded by Archive users. Most of the movies are available for download. The Archive's audio and MP3 library contains over a hundred thousand free digital recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Many of the audios and MP3s are available for free download. They also have a full-text library. Texts are Free to read, download, print, and enjoy. Some have restrictions on bulk re-use and commercial use, please see the collection or the sponsor of a book. By providing near-unrestricted access to these texts, the Archive hopes to encourage widespread use of texts in new contexts by people who might not have used them before."

Finally I will end with the online books page. This index includes more than 25,000 English works in various formats. All should be free for personal, noncommercial use.

I hope that you will find some great knowledge and entertainment "At No Charge" from what you have learned from this weeks blog. I will continue my search for great free items and we will blog again next week.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Out of the office - Check out FREE Stuff links

I apologize to those of you waiting for my next blog. I have had an injury and will not be posting until next week.

FYI - The next blog will cover some untapped resources where you can get video and DVD rentals "At No Charge", as well as many other great free items.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and have a great week to everyone!

Don't forget - "The best things in life are free!"

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Welcome to the "At No Charge" Blog....

In this first blog I just want to cover some of the things that we will blog about. If the name, "At No Charge", isn't obvious - We will discuss how to get anything and everything "At No Charge". In other words...FREE.

We will discuss how to get anything "At No Charge", online or not. I will share many of my personal experiences and discuss what I have acquired "At No Charge" and how you can do the same.

Please notice that I will be adding links to great FREE online sites on the right side of the page. These will be updated regularly. If you have a request for something that you would like "At No Charge" or would like to discuss a particular topic please e-mail me or add it in the comments section of this blog.

Thank you for visiting the "At No Charge" blog - Talk to you at the next posting ;)

What Freebie do you want me to discuss?

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