Lynda, the Library, and me

The Big!Work!Project! which surely you are tired of hearing of by now involved new software, and a new-to-us way of writing reports. It’s Crystal Reports, which while it’s new-to-us, isn’t very new-to-me. I was using it over 10 years ago at the C-P, and I won’t lie, seeing it re-emerge sent a shiver of dread down my spine. What I needed was a refresher.

Last Tuesday night, I had a dream that I went to Lynda.com (a training site that’s been live since 1995) and signed up for Crystal Reports training.

Wednesday I woke and thought…good idea, dream-Kim! Lynda is free to try for the first month, and then $20-30 each subsequent month. I looked online and saw that there was a Crystal Reports Essentials class. Niiiiiice.

And then I paused. And started to Google. Because I’m a member of 2 different library systems, I thought maybe one of them had a discount available. Turns out, The Philadephia Free Library offers free access to Lynda.com. That partnership started on September 5 — my birthday.

Which is how I earned a digital certificate in Crystal Reports for absolutely free, and how I’m going to take SQL and other data classes each month FOR FREE.

You probably thought this was a sponsored post for Lynda.com but instead, I’m going to tell you to join your local library and get stuff for free!

But if Lynda.com wants to give me money to talk about them, I’m all ears! 😉