From museum passes to free performances and a seemingly endless ebook catalog, Georgia Public Library Service’s PINES Card offers account holders benefits well beyond standard book services.
“A library card is your gateway to so many resources,” Middle Georgia Regional Library’s Marketing Coordinator, Andrew Willis said. “It goes beyond books.” Willis said the PINES card opens doors to an expansive database filled with movies, magazines, business directories and scholarly articles.
The card is available to all Georgia residents, students and land owners. Non-residents looking to sign up for a PINES card can provide any documentation in their name with a Georgia address, such as medical paperwork or a bill, Willis said. Libraries and library cards are often overlooked “because they’re always there,” Willis said. “It’s not just a book warehouse, it’s a community hub.”
Beyond literary content, card owners can access five museums, including the Macon Museum Pass, which offers free admission to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Tubman African American Museum. Other perks include free passes to Georgia’s 60 state parks, historic sites and various other passes to theaters and education centers.
Willis highlighted the Palace Project as a particularly beneficial program for college students. With the PINES card, anyone can create an account in the Palace app, providing over 200,000 e-book and audiobook titles available for download. Willis said Middle Georgia constantly updates their online catalog. “You wouldn’t even have to visit the library,” he said.
Students involved in research can also use the app to access Georgia Library Learning Online, a database with over 10,000 scholarly articles, journals, periodicals and government documents. With the PINES card comes education opportunities as well. Cardholders can utilize Mango Languages, which provides courses to learn seventy-plus languages. Entrepreneurs and business owners may find assistance in the library system’s Business and Non-Profit Center.
Nathaniel Jordan '29 intends to major in Journalism at Mercer and hopes to work as an investigative journalist. His hobbies include poetry, photography and home cooking, and you can probably find him around Macon shopping or walking through local parks with his wife and son.
