by Jenn Slone, CRCPL Access Director

The Chillicothe & Ross County Public Library continues to provide patrons with timely, relevant digital resources, with two new eResources now available for cardholders in the eLibrary:  Udemy Online Video Courses and the New York Times Archives (1980-present).

Udemy replaces Gale Courses, which had low usage and an increasing price tag.  While Gale Courses bound users to a 6-week course period, courses in Udemy can be completed at your own pace and leisure. 

Udemy empowers you to grow professionally and personally, offering cutting-edge online video courses in Coding, Development, Python, Java, Business, Marketing, Drawing, Photography, and much more.

There is a social component to Udemy, where patrons can rate courses and provide feedback.  This helps to identify really great courses amongst the thousands of courses available in Udemy’s catalog.

Udemy also has a mobile app for online learning, where Gale Courses did not.  Udemy also provides users with a portal to track their progress and download and print completed certifications at any time.

The library has also acquired access to the New York Times archives (1980-present), via ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers platform.  Once you log in, you have access to full-text archives of New York Times content, including today’s news. Access also includes The Daily Podcast, the NYT Late Edition, NYT Book Review, NYT Espanol, NYT Magazine, NYT Online and NYT Video.

Last year, the library added access to ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers of Ohio, which includes full-text searchable PDFs of the entire Chillicothe Gazette archive.  The library also provides access to Newspaper Archive, an archive of newspapers from all over the world going back to the 1600s.

The library has already begun providing access to a new resume software called “Got Resume Builder.”  At the end of March 2025, the library’s subscription to Cypress Resume will expire and that resource will no longer be available. 

With Got Resume Builder, you can create a resume online in minutes. Users create one login to keep multiple resumes on file. You can custom-build your resume with sections according to your needs and use the built-in AI assistant to help with phrasing if you’d like a little guidance. Tons of sample resumes in a variety of industries are provided as examples.  When you’re all finished, you can download in a variety of formats or generate a direct web link to your resume.

Here is a review of eResource changes for 2025:

• Going away January 1, 2025, due to low usage:  Gale Courses and Comics Plus
• New January 2025:  Udemy, New York Times (1980-present), Got Resume Builder
• Going away due to low usage on March 31, 2025:  National Geographic for Kids and Cypress Resume
• On July 1, 2025, the library will transition from Transparent Language to Mango Languages, which includes ASL Inside (American Sign Language) and Little Pim for kids.  Stay tuned for more information about that new resource.

Check out the library’s wide array of digital resources at CRCPL.org/elibrary.