Gear Up for Biking with Pratt Library Resources

Spring weather is finally here, and some Pratt staff are out biking to work at the library as well as farmer’s markets, parks, and Baltimore city streets. Whether you’re thinking about biking for transportation, fitness,  or adventure, we have some biking resources to share. There are so many biking opportunities around Baltimore, and so much to borrow from the Pratt collection for free with your library card.

May is Bike Month – Join Us and Check out Local Links

Borrow or Browse Bike Books & Media

Search the Pratt catalog to find books, ebooks, movies and more on bicycling or cycling, bike repair, or biking books for kids. Click or tap an item below to borrow it now, have it sent to your local library to pickup, or even stream some online on your computer or mobile device.

Getting started and keeping your bike in shape

 

Bike commuting and riding in the city


For kids and families


Fitness biking

All types of biking

Biking beyond Baltimore

Bike themed movies

Inspiring biking stories

Hope to see you biking to a Pratt Library location soon–don’t forget that you can have any of the books or DVDs above sent to your nearest local library branch for pickup.

Have you used any good bike resources from us? If so, let us know on social media and tag it #atthepratt.

Look into Your Ancestry

You’ve seen the commercials for Ancestry.com.  Now you can access those same databases inside your Pratt Library.

Ancestry® Library Edition delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.  It’s an unprecedented online collection of individuals from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more.  Here, you can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. And, with ongoing updates and new content always being added, you’ll keep coming back to discover more.

Popular and recently added collections include:

U.S. collections deliver hundreds of millions of names from sources such as federal and U.S. censuses; birth, death, and marriage records including the Social Security Death Index; and U.S. border crossing and trans-ocean ship records.

Canadian collections provide nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada, and key vital records, such as the Drouin Collection (1621-1967), which includes nearly 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

U.K. collections offer censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland, with nearly 200 million records: Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London, and more.

Other international collections continue to grow with more than 46 million records from German censuses, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, phone directories, and more; Chinese surnames in the large and growing Jiapu Collection of Chinese lineage books; Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia; and more.

Military collections deliver over 150 million records containing information often not found elsewhere and includes records from the colonial to the Vietnam era.

Multimedia collections deliver millions of files ranging from family and gravestone photos to postcards and newsreels.

Ancestry® Library Edition is only available inside one of your 22 Pratt Library locations.  

Hot New Titles as the Weather Heats Up

As the temperature finally rises, it’s time to check out some hot new titles from the Pratt.

New Fiction Titles

For a complete list of new FICTION titles, click here

For a complete list of new MYSTERY titles, click here

For a complete list of new SCIFI & FANTASY titles, click here

New Nonfiction Titles

For a complete list of new NONFICTION titles, click here

New Children’s Titles

For a complete list of new CHILDREN’S titles, click here

Check back tomorrow for new Young Adult Titles and Overdrive titles available for download.

May Day Library Guide

Happy May Day! Celebrate by learning more about the US Labor movement through music, photography, theatre, poetry, literature, and film from the Fine Arts and Humanities departments.

Click on the cover to reserve your copy now.

Labor Music

Prints and Photographs

Humanities: Theatre

Humanities: Poetry

Humanities: Film

Humanities: Literature

Checking out one of the resources? Share it on social media with #atthepratt.