The Library can help you brush up on your language skills while school’s out this summer - or get you started learning a brand new language - all from the comfort of home!

Library card holders can access the Online Language Learning Center (sometimes known as Rosetta Stone), which provides learners with writing, reading, listening, and speaking lessons in a number of languages from Arabic to Japanese to Welsh.

Connect online through the College, Careers, & Education section of our Research Page. Complete a one-time registration at the Online Language Learning Center site so you can save your work, and you’re ready to go!

Good luck, bonne chance, buena suerte....

Got your eye on a new grill? Replacing that old air conditioner? If you'd like to review the product information in Consumer Reports, the AADL can help - and you don't even need to leave home!

Library card holders can access full text articles from the magazine using the General OneFile database, accessible from the Research page. Once you're at the InfoTrac site, choose the Advanced Search screen to limit your search by publication and enter "Consumer Reports" into the publication title box.

Of course, if you’re coming to the library, you can still find the print copy of Consumer Reports at all of our branches.

Looking for a good book set in Michigan? Or maybe a story about a zookeeper? The What Do I Read Next? database is here to help you!

Try their Who? What? Where? When? feature – select a character, setting, or time period to search the database and get a list of titles that match your selections. You can limit by age range and choose fiction and/or non-fiction titles. You can access What Do I Read Next? from the library’s Research page. (And, for a Michigan setting, check out The Lake, the River & the Other Lake. For a story about a zookeeper, try Good Night, Gorilla.)

Have you watched The Queen, or read Abundance: a Novel of Marie Antoinette, or checked out other books and movies with characters based on real people?

If you want to find out more about the real lives of those portrayed on screen and in print, try the Biography Resource Center with Marquis Who's Who. The database includes narrative biographies, as well as articles and selected websites. Access it through our Research page in the Biography section.

Don’t forget you can use the database from home with a Library card!

If your book club is setting its summer agenda, the Library can help you -- with more than just the books!

If you’re looking for discussion questions, the Novelist database offers reading group guides for a range of titles. Need more information about an author? You can find author biographies, bibliographies, and selected websites in the Literature Resource Center.

Both databases can be accessed through the Arts and Literature section of our Research page.

According to AAA, 1.1 million Michigan residents are planning to travel on Memorial Day weekend. If your family is among them, you can find kid-friendly facts about your destination state in the CultureGrams database, located on the AADL's Research page. Check out the "States Edition" to read about the history, geography, and population of any state. You can even hear the songs of state birds!

It's time for gardens and summer activities. The following web sites can help kids FIGURE OUT how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Texas Agriculture Extension Service provides a nice slide show sequence of kids setting up a compost bin. Learn how garbage can become new and treasured at EEK! Recycling and Beyond. At The Imagination Factory an Indiana waste management company has a site full of fun and artisitic ideas on how to reuse materials.

Affordable Europe

If you are heading to any of these 15 hot travel destinations in Europe this summer, the New York Time staff and contributors have great money-saving tips for you.

In these Affordable Europe: City Guides, you would discover cheap eats, bargain hotels, and great shopping guaranteed not to max out your credit card :
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Florence, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Rome, St. Petersburg and Vienna.

Be sure to send us a postcard and post your own tips online.

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Getting the best deal on gas has never been more important and the MSN Local Gas Prices database will let you comparison shop without wasting fuel. If the “it could always be worse” argument helps, put in a San Francisco zip code (94102) after you’ve checked out Washtenaw County prices. The AAA Fuel Cost Calculator lets you determine how much your next road trip will cost. Michigan travel looks better and better.

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And that makes it official. Zingerman's, according to the front page of the May 3rd NYT business section, is one of the best run and most fun companies in the world. Did you know AADL library card holders can read the entire New York Times full-text back to 1851 through the AADL research page? The coolest part is the full-page images of historical editions with banner headlines, advertising and pictures.