Note: Also check Creating and Editing Playlists and Choosing Videos and Completing Courses.

HPL is happy to announce that we have a new digital resource: Lynda.com!

What on earth is Lynda? Think of it like YouTube but educational. Instead of spending all that time surfing the net to find out how to make a pivot table in Excel, you can simply pull up Lynda.com and watch a short video. Want to learn how to advertise on Twitter? There’s a video for that! Videos range from a few minutes long to several hours, depending upon the depth of the topic. It also offers video based courses on a variety of topics, but that’s for a later post.

Today I’m going to help you get started with Lynda.com including making and customizing your account. You’re going to need your MY Link card at the ready! (Need one? Visit our MY Link page to get started.)

When you first open up Lynda, you’ll be greeted with a log in page. If you already have an account, you’ll simply enter your library card number and password and click Log in. As a new user, though, you will need to click the Create a profile button to set up your account and make a password.

On the Create a profile page, you’ll be asked to provide your valid Houston Public Library card number then create a password. The password needs to be at least six characters with a letter and a number. I discovered this the hard way, so you don’t have to! Mind the yellow warning in the photo. They are serious about those requirements. Click Create Profile to move to the next screen which will ask for your first and last name and an email address.

Now that you have a profile with Lynda.com, it’s going to ask you to select the topics that are of interest to you so it can make recommendations. You can go back and change these at any time or ignore them completely. I highly recommend selecting a couple so you can get a feel of the types of materials Lynda offers and jump quickly to the learning stage. There are a number of categories to choose from and a variety of topics within each of those categories. You can select individual topics or the entire category if you just can’t decide on one focus at the moment. Personally, I have a wide range of  topics selected for future learning.

I hope you enjoy our new service! Keep an eye out for future Lynda.com blog posts about adding and editing playlists as well as watching videos and completing courses.

If you have any questions or get stuck, please give us a call at 832-393-1313 or drop us an email.

Written by Genevieve H., Central Library