Today’s post comes to us from Cheshire Library’s Deputy Director, Deb Rutter:

Magazines are popular with our readers at  Cheshire Library and there are more ways than ever to access them!

Prefer traditional paper? The last decade or so has been tough on print magazines.  Favorites such as Newsweek, Glamour, Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Redbook, and the Ladies’ Home Journal have ceased publication or switched to a newsstand-only or digital-only format.  Others have reduced the number of issues per year.  But even with the decline in print magazines, there are still great new titles popping up.  We’ve just added 3 new magazines to our collection: Cowboys and Indians, which highlights the life and style of the modern American West, The Magnolia Journal, created by popular HGTV hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines, and Pioneer Woman, created by author and TV personality Ree Drummond.  We have over 130 other magazine titles on the lower level adjacent to our new quiet reading area.   Enjoy reading the latest issue of your favorites in the library in our new quiet reading lounge, or check out previous issues to take home.

Downloadable magazines are a great option as you can read them on your tablet, phone or computer.  We have two magazine platforms available to our CPL cardholders, RBdigital and Overdrive/Libby (non-CPL cardholders, check with your local library to find out what digital platforms are available there).  RBdigital features 34 magazine titles, including The Economist (which we do not offer in paper format), Eating Well, Discover, Better Homes and Gardens,  and more.  One of my personal favorites is National Geographic, which includes additional video content and is absolutely glorious on an IPad—so glorious that one of my neighbors purchased an IPad after seeing the National Geographic on mine!  You can “subscribe” to as many magazines as you would like and receive an email notifying you when the newest issue is ready to be read or downloaded to your device of choice.  It really doesn’t get much easier. Overdrive/Libby offers about 50 magazine titles including Cosmopolitan, Car & Driver, Esquire, and TV Guide.  There is some overlap in content between the 2 platforms, (for example, you can access Newsweek and Popular Science through both platforms) but the subscription feature is available only through RBdigital.

Are we missing some of your favorites?  Email us and let us know what they are.  No promises, but we may be able to add some of them to our collection!