Oxford Library Director Makes Push to Share Thousands of Free E-books and Resources for All Alabama Residents

September 1, 2021
Lee Evancho

Oxford Public Library Director, Amy Henderson, wants all Alabama residents to know exactly what the state has to offer through the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL).
The AVL is not new; however they are expanding their resources on a regular basis. A recent public release detailed the inclusion of Gale Legal Forms as well as Teaching Books. This service is free to all Alabama residents and is paid for through Alabama Legislature.

While you can access all resources offered you can also select resources that pertain to your specific needs as shown below.

The Alabama Virtual Library provides all students, teachers, and citizens of the State of Alabama with 24/7 online access to premier library and information resources free of charge. AVL provides access to several types of resources such as Dictionary/Encyclopedias, Literature, Current Events, Business, and E-Books to name a few. Getting started is also simple.

Select one of the education levels (Elementary School, Middle School, High School, etc.) from the “Resources for Alabama” menu at the top of the AVL website.
Next, select one of the resources that is available for the education level that you selected. Or, you can search most AVL resources by using the AVL Discovery Search.
Once you select the resource you want to access, your browser will take you to the landing page for that resource and you can begin your search.
Some AVL resources have integrated search boxes in their informational pop up window. To access this feature, click on the information icon in the resource tile and then enter your search terms into the integrated search box.

To create an account contact your local public library.

The full press release on new resources is below:

MONTGOMERY – The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is pleased to announce the addition of two new resources — TeachingBooks and Gale LegalForms — to its already robust list of databases that provide reliable information to all Alabama residents free of charge.

Made for use by students, educators, and librarians, TeachingBooks is a comprehensive collection of audio, video, and digital resources that personalize and enrich connections to books commonly read by children and young adults. The database provides more than 257,000 resources on books, including 14,000 read-along audio book performances and 1,600 complete book readings.

Gale LegalForms brings together thousands of authentic, professional, national and state-specific legal forms and templates including business, personal, real estate and general forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues. Forms included range from landlord tenant, wills, power of attorney, and small business contracts. These forms are fill-in-the-blank, downloadable, and continuously updated to reflect current Alabama laws.

AVL also recently acquired 302 educational e-books (237 titles from Capstone and 65 titles from Gale) to include in its online library primarily for use by elementary school students. These e-book titles cover more than a dozen academic areas ranging from science, art, music, math, reading, and technology.

“The addition of over 300 e-books for grades K-5 is a win-win for Alabama,” said Ron Leonard, treasurer for the AVL. “There are both non-fiction titles to support classroom activities and fiction titles to help foster a love for reading. Also, by making a large, statewide purchase of the ebooks for all Alabamians — there is economy of scale, thus benefiting the taxpayer.”

AVL (www.avl.lib.al.us) is Alabama’s statewide digital library. First funded by the Alabama Legislature in 1999, AVL ensures equitable access to high quality information that is always available remotely to anyone
in Alabama. The AVL Council is composed of representatives from the Alabama State Department of Education, the Alabama Public Library Service, the Alabama Community College System, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, and the Alabama Supercomputer Authority. The Alabama Public Library Service is the fiscal agent for AVL.

The Alabama Public Library Service is the state agency whose mission is to provide information services to all citizens, local public libraries, and state employees.