Brooks Free Library will be closed on Monday, February 16th for Presidents' Day
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Programs

Welcome to our Programming page. Here you can find:

  • The Event Calendar
  • Info about our Assistive Listening System
  • A quick glance at on-going (recurring) programs
  • Info about our virtual platform of choice, Google Meet

The Event Calendar

This calendar is where you can find all of the our scheduled programming. Be sure to read the descriptions for each program so you know whether registration is required, and what steps to take.

Click here for the Event Calendar

Remember, if you have any trouble registering just give us a call at (508) 430-7562 ext. 1 and we’ll help you get things sorted out.

On-Going Programs

Here’s a look at what we’ve currently got going on for programming.

Program descriptions are available on the Event Calendar, or, in the case of book groups, on our website. Click on the image to be brought to the description.

Note: This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it should give you a good idea of what kinds of recurring programs we have.

 

For programs targeted at Children and Teens, check out our Youth Services pages!

4th Tuesday Book Klatch
Audience: 18 +

Morning Book Group
Audience: 18+

Knit Lit
Audience: 18 +

Assisted Listening System

We are excited to announce that the library has a new assisted listening system, fully integrated with the latest wireless microphones, speakers, and a mounted projector. Any sound in our meeting room will go to the Williams Sound assisted listening system, whether it be music playing from the projector or a speaker using a microphone.

A preview of the Williams Sound WaveCAST app, showing the Brooks Meeting Room channel favorited

There are several ways to use this system. The first way is using a receiver. We can provide you with a standard pair of headphones, a single-ear headphone, or a wearable loop that can be used if you can toggle your telecoil (t-coil) on your hearing aid.

Williams Sound also has an app! As long as your hearing aid or headphones are connected to your phone or tablet, you just need to connect to the Brooks Meeting Moom WiFi, open the WaveCAST app, and select the Brooks Meeting Room channel to listen in.

Download the App from the Apple App Store
Download the App from Google Play

You can find step-by-step instructions for using this system at this link

Please note that this is a new system, so our staff is still learning and some technology issues may arise. If you have any questions, we ask that you arrive a little early for the program you would like to attend, or you can schedule a time to sit down with a staff member to make sure you are ready for the next program. Please call us at 508-430-7562 or stop by anytime the library is open and we can help you!

This was funded in part through gifts from the James and Hellen Athens fund, as well as outstanding articles in our budget.

Google Meet

So what is Meet? Meet is a rebranding of Google’s older service, Hangouts. It lets you video chat with your friends and family for free, with unlimited session lengths, and multiple options for joining. Anyone can join a Meet meeting, you don’t have to have a Google Account to do so.

Meet works on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, and more. If you’re using your computer to join one of our Meet meetings, you’re going to want to make sure you have one of the following browsers:

Keep in mind, Meet doesn’t really work on Internet Explorer, so if you need help installing one of these other browsers just let us know!

We chose Meet over Zoom for its security. If you’re curious about Meet’s security, here’s a bit of reading on how Google Meet keeps your video conferences protected.

Something to keep in mind before you get started using Meet on your laptop or computer is that you need to allow access to your microphone and camera for it to work as intended. To do this, here are the steps from Google: 

“Before you start using Meet, you need to allow access to your computer’s camera and microphone.

Allow access the first time you use Meet

  1. In a web browser, go to the Meet homepage.
  2. Click Start a new meeting.
  3. Click Allow.

Change the settings to allow access

If you aren’t asked to allow access or if you blocked access before, you can change your settings.

  1. In a web browser, go to the Meet homepage.
  2. Click Start a new meeting.
  3. At the top right, click Camera blocked Disallowed media.
  4. Click Always allow https://meet.google.com to access your camera and microphone.
  5. Click Done. The video meeting automatically connects. If you don’t see the meeting reload, exit and re-enter the meeting.” Link