Just a reminder - All library locations are closed beginning Thursday, December 24 and resuming normal operating hours on Monday, January 4. Hold on to your checked out items; loan periods have been changed so no materials are due over the closure as book bins are closed/locked. Find out more.
Stay cozy, healthy, and warm inside while delighting in free magazines, newspapers, digital books, music, and movies – all available through your library website with library membership.
ORL eBooks is the ORL’s largest collection of downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks. With hundreds of popular fiction and non-fiction titles to choose from, this collection will have something for everyone. You can enjoy best-selling novels, well-known classics, self-improvement guides, and much more.
Get Started with ORL eBooks.
The TumbleBook Library for Kids features animated, talking picture books as well as puzzles and games, based on books in the collection.
TeenBookCloud is great for tweens and teens. A part from a eBooks, the collection includes graphic novels, quite a few books found on High School Language Arts curriculum, and eAudiobooks.
With these two collections, there are no downloads or waitlists and the book plays right in the browser of your computer or your tablet.
Get started with Digital Books for Kids or Get Started with Digital Books for Teens.
Our genealogical database Ancestry: Library Edition available to patrons at home until March 31, 2020! Got some time off and want to discovery your family history, now is your chance! You can find records for births marriages, military services, passenger lists and more from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
Find it at https://www.orl.bc.ca/elibrary/online-resources/subject#Genealogy .
Use the holidays to learn a new language through Rosetta Stone. Learn Spanish, German, Korean, Arabic, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and more. You can enjoy Rosetta Stone on your computer, or you can enjoy it on your smartphone or tablet using the Rosetta Stone mobile app.
Get Started with Rosetta Stone.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to improve your photography skills, learn computer coding, learn how to design a logo, or develop business and marketing skills? You can watch video tutorials on these and other topics for free with your library card, through Lynda.com.
Get Started with Lynda.com.
With Naxos Music Libraries you can play classical music on your browser.
Find complete recordings from Naxos, Marco Polo, and Dacapo. The Jazz library offers recordings of over 32,000 artists are represented including the legendary artist John Coltrane and iconic artists such as Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, and many others.
Get started with Naxos Music Library.
Kanopy gives ORL members access over 30,000 films, including award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, world cinema, and lecture series from The Great Courses.
Get Started with Kanopy.
Want to catch up with the latest in politics, business, and celebrity gossip? Or get new crafting, hobby, or holiday entertainment ideas? Check out RBdigital Magazines. This collection offers ORL customers access to hundreds of popular magazines!
Get Started with RBdigital Magazines.
Get caught up with your favorites like People, Maclean’s, Time, Chatelaine, and Martha Stewart Living. For the kiddoes, we have Archie, Chickadee, and Owl magazines. These digital magazines can be found only in the ORL’s Flipster.
Get Started with Flipster Digital Magazines.
Keep up with news from Canada and all over the world, with PressReader, the world’s largest online newspaper and magazine kiosk. ORL members have free access to full content digital replicas of more than 4,000 publications including, such as the Daily Courier, The Vancouver Sun, and The Guardian.
Get Started with PressReader.
This is just a taste of the online resources the library has to offer. Discover all of the ORL's online resources.
Enjoy your holidays – we can’t wait to see you when the library system re-opens on January 4.
On December 17, digital books from our RBdigital collection will be moving to our ORL eBooks|OverDrive collection, so you can find your favorite books all in one place.
You will continue to be able to browse, borrow, and enjoy all the same great eBooks and eAudiobooks you loved, but they will be available in Libby App and on the ORL eBooks website.
You won’t see much change, other than you may notice even more great titles available for you to borrow!
If you currently have a book checked out from the RBdigital App, it will be available through the remainder of the lending period, so you can finish your book without disruption or risk of losing your place in the book.
Holds and items on your wishlist cannot be moved to the ORL eBooks collection. You can get a record of this info from your account on the RBdigital Books website prior to December 17. Here's how:
For the time being, you can continue to enjoy RBdigital Magazines on the RBdigital App and on the RBdigital site. More details to come in 2021!
Check out this article from OverDrive, our digital book provider: https://www.overdrive.com/RBdigital-transition-preview or email help@orl.bc.ca.
Saying that 2020 has been a year of many challenges for most of us is an understatement!
As year-end approaches and the holidays arrive, all of us at the Okanagan Regional Library want to thank each of you, our Library users, for your patience, understanding and support as we continue to navigate the evolving world of COVID-19. We have tried our best to adapt our services throughout the year to help keep everybody safe while still ensuring access to our many needed resources now more than ever.
We hope you enjoy your time during this holiday season. Be it with a book by a fireplace, an audiobook while making dinner, in front of a computer watching Lynda tutorials to sharpen up your skills for 2021 or our many other virtual services.
Our buildings will be closed between December 23 and January 4, but our virtual services are not. You can still access programming for children, including many STEAM programs, and some adult programming. Of course, we also have excellent online resources such as training videos from Lynda, eBooks and eMagazines that can be accessed for free to fill your leisure time.
Remember that we are here for you 24/7 right here on our website. Visit us and watch, listen, and explore what we have to offer.
Stay Well, Be Kind and Keep Learning! We look forward to serving you in 2021.
Hey kids and teens, showcase your creativity and imagination with our fun challenges! You can find new things to try out with our Library Adventures for Kids and ourDares & Challenges for Teens.
This month, your mission is to create a Gingerbread Man in Disguise by decorating it as your favorite book character!
Find out more:
Instructions for Kids
Instructions for Teens
Beginning December 1, we are increasing the number of digital books you can borrow at a time from the ORL eBooks|OverDrive collection!
You can now borrow up to 10 digital books at a time and place requests on up to 10 digital books at time.
New to digital books and want to get in on this? With a library card, members of the community can borrow from the ORL eBooks collection for free. Enjoy the books on your browser, eReader, or using the Libby App on your smartphone or tablet.
Learn how to get started, today! The ORL has over 45,000 digital books including best-sellers, children’s, business, romance and something for readers of all ages in eBook and eAudiobook format.
Happy eReading.
At the November 18, 2020 meeting of the Okanagan Regional Library Board of Trustees, the Board:
In more detail:
The Board approved a lean budget for next year, with a less than 1% increase from 2020. During these challenging times, the Library is minimizing its financial impact with this below inflation budget change. The Library will defer major service changes and shift resources internally for 2021 to maintain service levels while still working on their new strategic plan and preparing for future service improvements.
The Library's 2020 finances remain in order. The Library expects to end the year in a financially secure position. Revenues are down due to waiving of fines, less patron activity, and high COVID-19 related costs. The Library had largely offset these losses by some wage savings from vacancies, not needing to utilize on-call staff, and some layoffs when library branches were forced to close in the spring due to COVID-19.
The Board approved a new 3-year agreement with its CUPE staff, which has been ratified by CUPE running to December 2023, which includes a 2% increase each year. Negotiations with the Professional Employees Union are scheduled to begin in December.
Due to the changes necessary to keep branches safely opened due to COVID-19, in-person library visits are down. The Library has capped occupancy for the buildings, suspended most in-branch programs, removed most seating, and removed many public computers and other hands-on technology. Despite this, physical materials' circulation for October has recovered to over 80% of October 2019 levels, and online resource use and e-materials are significantly above 2019 levels.
The Board said goodbye and gave thanks to Karla Kozakevich, our current Board Chair. Kozakevich served on the Board for the maximum allowed time under the eight-year legislation, chaired the Policy and Planning Committee for several years, and served as the Board Chair for the past two years. CEO Don Nettleton observed that "even though she was tremendously busy as a Regional Director and Chair of the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, Karla helped steer the ORL through significant events including the election of many new Board members, the opening of new service points like UBCO and the Westside Learning Lab, and of course the latest challenges of a global pandemic. She will be missed by the Board and by staff. Karla will continue as Chair until the Board elects her successor at the next Board meeting in February.
Established in 1936, the Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) is the 16th largest library system in Canada, serving over 400,000 residents through 31 branches. It covers 59,600 square kilometres of some of the most beautiful territories in BC, stretching from Golden in the Rockies to Osoyoos in the heart of the Okanagan wine and fruit growing areas and Princeton in the Similkameen. The system is staffed by energetic and committed people who have begun the shift to a more learning and technology-focused service.
Calling on life-long learners! Feeling nostalgic for that back-to-school feeling this time of year brings? Get back to class from the comfort of home with The Great Courses and your library card!
With The Great Courses (found in our Kanopy Streaming Film collection), you can watch lectures given by professors and teachers.
Check out some of the courses you can watch:
View all courses on Kanopy
The videos will not take up your monthly 8 film limit for the Kanopy collection and there are no exams, group projects, or tuition fees! Learn how to sign up and enjoy Kanopy Films today
More about Kanopy Streaming Films: You can watch up to 8 movies per month, all for free with your library card! Choose from among more than 30,000 of the world’s best films. With the motto of "thoughtful entertainment," Kanopy provides ORL patrons with access to films of unique social and cultural value, including programming that features diversity, with a wide array of foreign language films and films on race, and current affairs.
Browse digital versions of the latest issues of popular magazines for free with your library card.
Get caught up with your favorites like People, Maclean’s, Time, Chatelaine, and Martha Stewart Living. For the kiddoes, we have Archie, Betty & Veronica, Chickadee, and Owl magazines.
These digital magazines can be found only in the ORL’s Flipster collection, https://www.orl.bc.ca/elibrary/flipster.
Read as many as you like! No holds, no waiting!
You can read the magazines online on the browser of your computer, tablet, or smartphone. You can also download magazines for offline reading anytime, anywhere when using the free Flipster app on your Android™ smartphone or tablet, or your Apple® iPhone or iPad.
Check out Flipster today and be sure to visit our other online magazines and newspaper collections – all free to access with library membership!
We hope you have been enjoying the Kanopy Streaming Films collection, because it is here to stay!
With your library card, you will be able to watch up to 8 films per month.
Here is what it’s all about! You will be able to choose from among more than 30,000 of the world’s best films.
Catch up on classics you’ve been meaning to watch from the Criterion Collection’s 50 Janus Films, with Seven Samurai, Bicycle Thieves, and Modern Times.
Are you in the mood for learning something new? You can watch lectures given by esteemed professors and teachers with The Great Courses series. You can learn about the history of the ancient world, physics and math, animals, or business! Best part? No homework or exams! Even better? The video series will not take up your monthly film limit.
There is something for everyone, we have modern indie films like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, world cinema like The Royal Tailor, and documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro.
Have you created a Kanopy Account between April 9 and May 17?
You may see a message saying “Membership Inactive: Please reactivate your membership” when trying to play a movie. Simply select OK, enter your library card number and PIN, and select Verify. You can then go back to the collection and watch your movie.
Go to https://www.orl.bc.ca/elibrary/kanopy to visit the collection and to learn how to get started.
To our valued library customers,
We know you would like to be back in your local library branches and able to check out materials, and we miss you, and are looking forward to the day we can reopen our library branches again.
Until further notice, libraries across BC and across the country remain closed for the safety of our staff and our customers.
We are very closely following the advice of our Provincial Health Officer. Provincially, our health experts are looking ahead and considering what a safe and gradual return to increased freedoms looks like. At the same time, libraries across the country are working together to determine what safe procedures we need to have in place before we can open our doors.
Unlike retail, libraries are built on sharing – so the circulating aspect of our collections needs special consideration. Libraries function because we share things, and right now we are being asked to limit what we share with others, including space. Research is currently underway to determine what steps need to be put in place to permit safe sharing of library materials again. As soon as we have the information we need, we can build safe procedures for our customers and staff and will be able to resume serving you from our physical locations.
We are doing our best to continue to provide access to reading materials, movies, music, and information through online borrowing. And our chat reference, phone line, and online programming offerings keep us connected and serving you at this time. We know this is not the same as having our branches open, and we also look forward to a return to normalcy. However, we respect that the quickest route to that is to be patient, be cautious, and be safe.
We look forward to seeing you in our branches just as soon as we can, but until then, please visit us at orl.bc.ca. You can ask questions using our online chat to learn how we can serve you at this time, or just call us to say hi at 1-844-649-8127. We’d love to talk to you.
The staff and management team at Okanagan Regional Library.
Have we got a treat for you! You can now watch even more online movies with your ORL card, while you are at home.
With the help of their content partners, Kanopy is providing access to their film collection while libraries are closed. ORL members can enjoy the collection until May 8.
Kanopy showcases more than 30,000 of the world’s best films, including award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, and world cinema with collections from Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Samuel Goldwyn, The Orchard, The Great Courses, PBS and thousands of independent filmmakers.
With the motto of "thoughtful entertainment," Kanopy provides ORL patrons with access to films of unique social and cultural value, including programming that features diversity, with a wide array of foreign language films and films on race, and current affairs.
Learn how to get started at https://www.orl.bc.ca/elibrary/kanopy.
March 16, 2020, ORL News
As you know, the Okanagan Regional Library has been closely monitoring the developments related to COVID-19. This is a continually evolving situation, and we continue to try to follow the advice of our health authorities and science as opposed to the hype and rumours.
Our primary concern is the health and safety of our customers and our staff and those vulnerable in our community. While the current risk assessment is still low for the BC interior and our communities, we know that it could increase at any time. We have previously cancelled all large programs for 250 or more people to “help flatten the curve” through social distancing as directed by our provincial Health officer.
What are we doing?
Library Programs Cancelled
Today our leadership team has made the decision that we will be cancelling all other programming for an indefinite period of time. Much of the planned programming over the next few weeks was special children’s programming occurring over the spring break period. These programs are normally very popular, and our library spaces are generally small.
Many programs involve the use and sharing of small technology pieces as well as crafts and special speakers and events.
These sorts of activities and spaces do not allow us to safely manage the social distancing risk, especially with children, and so during these unusual times, like many organizations across Canada, we have made the difficult choice to cancel these for the safety of our communities.
Branch Operations
For now, our branches will be open to the public as usual but this could change with little notice depending upon staffing or public health requirements. We will post changes to social media and our website when they occur, or as soon as we are able.
Library Materials
If you have materials currently on loan, you can still return them while we remain open, providing you are not sick. We would ask that if you are sick, please do not return your materials until you are entirely recovered. We will be waiving new fines for the period of March 16 -April 30.
Should the Library have to fully close, we will be closing all book returns and would ask that you keep your material until we reopen are reminding the public to be vigilant with hand washing and to maintain safe distances.
Additional Actions Being Taken
To this effect, where possible, we may be moving or removing seating and equipment in our branches to provide more space between people, and we will be encouraging people to use the self-checkout machines to minimize contact with staff and others.
Remember that you can still get ORL services online at ORL.BC.CA even if the Library has to fully close. Please take advantage of our digital e-materials. If you are self-isolated or quarantined, in addition to our e-books and e-audio books, it might be an excellent opportunity to consider learning a new language with Rosetta Stone or develop other new skills with Lynda.com.
Thank you for your support, understanding, and patience during this difficult time as we work together to ensure the well-being of all in our communities.
Don Nettleton,
Chief Executive Officer Okanagan Regional Library
We know that we need to balance public service with public safety. We are following the advice of the Public Health Agency of Canada, BC Ministry of Health and the Interior Health Authority.
These health authorities advise, for the time being, the risk of exposure to individuals in the ORL region remains low. They advise following standard prevention measures, including washing your hands regularly, avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, and avoiding close contact with sick people.
For the present, library branches will remain open and programs are continuing as planned. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and make adjustments if and when it changes. Any changes to library service will be posted on orl.bc.ca.
For current information about COVID-19, please visit our Emergency Information page.
Do you use the ORL eBooks|OverDrive collection to enjoy digital books?
OverDrive is changing how you check out requested books that become available to borrow so that you can better manage your holds!
Currently, when requested digital books become available, they are automatically checked out to your ORL eBooks account.
On March 2, this will change for all new and existing holds. When your hold becomes available, you will be notified, and you will have a 3-day window go to your account and borrow your book.
The notification will come through the Libby App on your smartphone or tablet (learn more about app notifications), or by email if you are using an eReader or computer.
You can have the hold delivered later! Choose the Deliver Later option from your account. You will keep your place in line and the book passes to the next patron on the wait list. After the date for your Deliver Later day passes, your hold will be redelivered to you when the next copy is available.
You can cancel the hold! Choose the Remove Hold option from your account.
[Updated 3 March]
Read more about these hold options on Libby Help (for Libby App users) or on OverDrive Help (if you use the ORL eBooks|OverDrive site, an eReader, or the classic OverDrive App).
At this time, patrons who are using newer Kobo eReaders (you can borrow library books directly from OverDrive on them), you will need to borrow or cancel your holds, or have your holds delivered later, through the ORL eBooks|OverDrive site.
Did you know you can borrow a thermal imaging camera from the library to see where heat loss is happening in your home?
To request a camera to borrow, click here or search for “See the Heat” or “Home Energy Kit” in the Catalogue, and place a hold.
The cameras can be borrowed for up to seven days.
This lending program is possible through a partnership with the City of Kelowna and Fortis BC.