Fire up that library card and go learn

Now, here's another reason to get a library card and find some way to gain access to the Internet.

A consortium of Island libraries, including the State Library System, the University of Hawai'i, the Department of Education plus a number of private schools and colleges, has bought a prepackaged monster data base of reference sources.

In most cases, the books, magazines, newspapers, journals, encyclopedias and other publications are full text, which means you get every word you'd get if you held the publication in your hand. Around 282,000 titles are currently listed.

And they are all available for free.

You can access the system from Internet access terminals in libraries and schools. If you are at home, all it takes to delve into this world of information is Internet access and a state library card.

This service will be particularly valuable for those who cannot easily get in person to one of our major libraries.

To check it out, go to www.hcc.hawaii.edu/hspls. Click on "electronic databases" and then click again on EBSCOHOST in the aqua-colored column on the right side of the page.

There. Go find out something.