BiblioTech

This is a great all-​digital library in South San Antonio. I immediately got connected, got myself a library card, and checked out an e-​reader. I go here to do some copying, printing, and free faxing tasks. There are a few conference rooms for group meetings, three rows of iMacs in the center room, a side room with outlets in the furniture for people who want to work on their laptops or tablets, a tech saavy children’s area, and a lobby with seating areas. Next door there is a county of Bexar’s precinct’s office where we go to notarized documents and make reports.
There was a plaque on the wall from the New York Times. Here is a link to the New York Times article about this library:

What a solid resource for San Antonio. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant about my new life in SA (coming from the world of weird in Austin) but tools like the BiblioTech make the transition smooth sailing. First, you have the sweet staff who complimented my daughter’s odd Austin-​y name, second there are the rows of iMacs for reading on site or the checking out of e-​readers for the adults. Next, we head into the children’s room where there are 4 iPads and 3 interactive LARGE tablets where kids can play games and do a lot of hands-​on leaning. Story time for toddlers is on Sundays at 2, although I hope they have a remedy to reading off the iPad for a larger group of kids. Also, the iPads were just that iPads… no software installed yet, no free books, etc. I see a lot of possibility with these iPads and I hope they are used to their full potential.
You ready for negative nancy? I wish people were quiet in this library. Yes, it still is a library but there was a dad ON HIS CELL PHONE the entire time in the kids section. Maybe my ADD mind couldn’t shake the disruption and you won’t have a problem, but I really wish the staff would have asked him to step outside or get off the phone to discover the room WITH his kid.
The funny part is, I used Apple Maps to get here (and didn’t get lost. Hey-​o!). But that’s not the funny part. As soon as I turned the corner to see the BiblioTech building I saw a bunch of cops cars instead. Driving a bit further I discovered that the BiblioTech is in the same building as precinct headquarters. Way to reinforce the security and send a silent message about the south side.

So this is Bexar County’s all new all-​digital library. From what I hear it’s the first of its kind in the whole country and am super excited about it! This place is super tech savvy. IMacs fill up most of the general area. The children’s room has the super cool tablet tables that I may have been hogging up. IPads are found all throughout the library. The staff is super friendly and really enthusiastic about the library themselves!
So the library has many features to visit. But the actual library itself basically works two ways.
Once you receive you library card and password you can on your own devices download the 3M cloud Library App. The app by the way was accessible from my Kindle, laptop and phone. Once downloaded you sign in with you library card number and can download/​check in books from there. You can easily download books from anywhere this way and there is a vast selection to choose from. They do only allow you to check in five books at a time and it’s at a two week period. There is a waiting time on most of the best sellers. But again there are plenty of books to choose from cook books to the classics.
If you don’t have any devices yourself don’t fret. They are lending out e readers for the adults and nooks for the children. These are at limited supply but such a wonderful opportunity for people without access or lacking in their technology expertise.