By Sarah Stang

Star Valley Branch Library

Many have referred to our time as “The Age of Information,” and people are taking advantage of it. According to the American Psychology Association, 75% of U.S. adults have done at least one activity in the past year to learn about a personal hobby or interest. These people are lifelong learners.

You might ask yourself, why is this significant? Well for starters, humans, in general, are naturally curious creatures and we like understanding the world around us.

Another reason is that formal education, while good and necessary for a functioning society, leaves out many important or interesting subjects. For example, financial literacy and education was something I did not learn in school and therefore I had to learn on my own. 

The beauty of lifelong learning is that the reasons to learn new things don’t matter! Whether it’s for personal or professional reasons, YOU choose what YOU want to learn about!  As someone who has extremely diverse interests, I am thrilled that I don’t have to limit myself at all! 

An unfortunate aspect of living in “The Age of  Information” is that not all the information we can find is accurate, so how can one be sure that what they are learning will actually benefit them? Because learning inaccurate information helps no one. A good place to start is your local library, because libraries are not just a place for books, but a hub of information!

All the libraries in the Lincoln County Library System work hard to make sure that their nonfiction collections are up to date and have a variety of subjects, so patrons can feel confident that the information they get from the library is accurate.

If, for some reason, your library does not have anything on a subject that you would like to know about, there are other means of getting the materials you need.

For example, requesting a book as an Interlibrary Loan, or ILL, is commonly used.  However, it is less known that getting a library card gives you access to the Libby app, where you can download ebooks and audiobooks from your smartphone or Kindle, but it also grants access to databases and LinkedIn Learning for free!

For anyone wanting to know more about these amazing resources, Lincoln County has six branches with amazing staff that would love to show you how to use them. Utilize them in your journey to be a lifelong learner.