At Oshawa Public Libraries, we've noticed an increasing number of readers who prefer to read Large Print books. We consequently offer many popular titles in large print as well as their standard type editions. And now, Large Print texts also have a presence in our French collection. Find them on the shelf marked Grands caractères - Large Print, just inside the McLaughlin Room door, to the right.

The fall publishing season will soon be here and with it a crop of new books by everyone's favorite authors. This season brings new offerings from John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, Clive Cussler, and many others. Please have a look at our Coming Soon page to see a listing of some of the fiction titles that will be arriving this fall and reserve your copies today.

Health Resource Guides at Oshawa Public Libraries direct you to reliable sources of health information on specific topics, available at our library and in our community, so you can get to the information you need on health topics which concern you. Recently added to our Health Resource Guides is a list of materials and resources offering information on H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu. To read OPL's guide to information on H1N1 Influenza click here. To find even more information, try our online health databases.

The Oshawa Public Libraries and the Oshawa PUC Networks Inc. have a partnership that allows WATT Readers to be available for free loan at any branch of the Library! WATT Readers plug into your appliances to give you the ability to target electricity costs within the home and adjust your consumption accordingly. Your library card is the key! Take home a Watt Reader today.

At Oshawa Public Libraries, there's now a simpler, more convenient way to search our e-resources. The Find Articles search has been our way of making searching our databases simpler, and it just got better. Through this search screen you have access to almost all our e-resources from a single search box. Pick a topic area, and watch your search results grow.

Oshawa Public Libraries is launching a new program to increase services for people who have difficulty reading print due to a visual, physical or learning disability. Thanks to our partners at CNIB and support from the Friends of the Library, we now subscribe to the Visunet Canada Partners Program. This will enable access to the CNIB Digital Library and the Children’s Discovery Portal, Canada’s largest collection of alternative format books and online resources. Some restrictions apply.

Visunet Canada Partners Program:
A partnership of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Oshawa Public Libraries

What is it?
A program to improve services for people who have difficulty reading print due to a visual, physical or learning disability

What is offered?
Access to Canada’s largest collection of books in alternative formats such as audio CDs or downloadable books onto your computer

Features:

• More than 80,000 titles in its collection


• Over 7,000 unabridged titles in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format on CD


• 635 descriptive films and PBS television programs


• 50 daily newspapers available on-line and on CD


• 9 popular magazines available in DAISY format


• Thousands of Braille & PrintBraille titles


• 18,000 titles of Braille Music and Music Instruction


• Access to the CNIB Digital Library and the Children’s Discovery Portal, including 17,000 online titles! Includes encyclopaedias, dictionaries, information databases as well as 2,000 digital audio titles and 22,000 e-text titles (using adaptive technology).


• Note: 20% of the collection is in French

This Spring, Oshawa introduces two new resources to its large e-resource collection. Now, Teen Health and Wellness provides OPL users a source of health information specifically tailored to teens. In addition, our collection now includes a selection of news publications from Eureka.cc, featuring local and regional Ontario newspapers as well as major French Canadian news publications. Check them out today.

On Monday March 9th, Oshawa Public Libraries launched its video game collections. Games for Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 2 are now available at all branches for one week loan. These games go fast, so check back often to see what titles we have on our shelf. Current titles include the following:

Auto Repair Reference Center already provides OPL members with online car and truck manuals for almost any make or model, but this February, Oshawa has added even more repair and maintenance material. Small Engine Repair Reference Center now provides manuals for motorcycles, ATVs, mowers and more. And for home repair and renovation, Home Improvement Reference Center will guide you through any work you want to get done. Visit our Online Research page for more.

There's a new way to find articles and research materials in OPL's online collections. The Find Articles link on the left hand menu will now take you to a search screen where you can search all of the research resources in either of OPL's two largest collections. You can still go to our full Online Research resource list to pick a particular resource. But now, using your Oshawa library card number, you can search a large selection of our online resources in one click on our Article Search page as well.