Library card key to free online learning

LYNN – Althia Gentles is looking for a customer service job, but the Lynn resident really wants to work in health care, and the public library may have the key to unlock the door opening onto Gentles? future success.The North Common Street library is offering free classes through Learn4Life, an online education program offered by Connecticut-based Cengage Learning. Gentles said the timing is right for her to take courses requiring an investment in time but not money.?It?s a great opportunity. A lot of people want to take courses but don?t have the finances,” she said.Cengage?s website describes the firm as an “online publisher of print and digital information services for the academic, professional and library markets.”Chief Librarian Theresa Hurley said the public library paid Cengage $4,000 to link the Lynn library into the firm?s Learn4Life course offerings and allow the library to promote the free courses to library users and other local residents.?There?s hundreds of courses offered. You can take up to five a year and all you need is your library card,” Hurley said.She said Learn4Life offers most courses for six weeks with suggested study times ranging from two to four hours a week. Courses are taught by an online instructor and include two lessons a week, as well as assignments and quizzes.Lynn residents can take the courses on their home computers or user library computers.New Learn4Life sessions start every month, Hurley said, with this month?s round beginning on Dec. 11. Lynn residents can find out more about the courses and how to enroll by visiting www.noblenet.org/lynn.Courses range from creative writing, health and wellness to computer and test preparation skills. Hurley said course listings include many English as a second language programs. She estimated 60 percent of the 400,000 visits to the library in 2012 were made by people who do not speak English as their first language.Students receive a certificate after completing courses, and Hurley said proof of training in a specific skill is a good resume-building tool for job hunters like Gentles. The Jamaican-born library patron studied health-related courses at North Shore Community College before starting her job search.?I?ve been sending out applications, but I?m not getting a lot of responses,” Gentles said.Hurley said a library user told her six months ago about Learn4Life courses offered through the Lawrence public library. She researched the online course offerings even as the patron urged her to bring Learn4Life to the North Common Street library.The public library?s mission includes introducing Lynn residents, including library, users to lifelong learning opportunities.?This is another way to reach out to people who don?t come here,” Hurley said.