Willard Library is proud to announce the launch of its newest mobile app, Tours of Battle Creek. This app provides users with an interactive and engaging way to explore Battle Creek’s fascinating history with a guided audio tour, slide show tours using archival video and photos, as well as in-depth supplemental materials including interviews, video excerpts, and more.  Tours of Battle Creek is available for download on both iOS and Android devices, and is completely free. It currently features tours of Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek historical markers, and Old Maple Street, with more in development. Each tour is designed to immerse users in Battle Creek’s past, providing insight into the people, places, and events that shaped our city’s unique history. Users may download tours to their phone, so content is accessible even without a cell signal. Each tour includes an overview map with a starting point, and turning on a device’s location tracking while the app is in use enables directions and triggers audio content for some locations. Users will even get an alert when approaching a tour stop.  Here’s How to Use It: Step 1. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play store or visit the website at battlecreek.stqry.app. .  Step 2. Download a tour. Once a tour is downloaded, it is entirely contained in your cell phone. Even if you lose cell service, you’ll have access to the tour content.  Step 3. Turn on your device’s location tracking. This way, the app can track your position (while the app is in use) using your phone’s GPS. This enables you to get directions to your next stop, and alerts when you are approaching a stop.   Step 4. Check for updated content.  Step 5. Start touring! Each tour includes an overview map with a starting point. Enabling GPS allows you to get directions from wherever you are and triggers audio content automatically for some stops.  Step 6. Enjoy the journey. Go at your own pace, and take a detour if you’d like. With Tours of Battle Creek with you, you won’t get lost.

Join us in celebrating Black History Month this February with these programs and recommended reading lists.

Now you have even more to love about your Willard Library digital collection on hoopla. New hoopla Flex Borrows! In addition to the 10 hoopla Instant borrows you receive each month with your Willard Library card, you now will have 5 hoopla Flex borrows you can use on thousands of specially marked hoopla Flex eBooks and Audiobooks. Unlike the 10 hoopla Instant Borrows you receive each month, hoopla Flex Borrows don’t have any monthly expirations. Each hoopla Flex title you Borrow is available for 21 days and if you run out of Flex Borrows, you can just return a checked out Flex item and borrow another title. Don’t forget to check your holds on hoopla. Your holds will expire in 48 hours. You can Read, Watch, and Listen to more than 950,000 eBooks, audiobooks, comics, movies, music, or television titles that are available to stream or download. You can sign up for hoopla with your Willard Library card at hoopladigital.com and download the hoopla app from your app store. Have other questions about how this expanded version of hoopla works? Call our Digital Media Librarian, Stefan Jovanovich, at 269-968-8166, ex. 523.