The Madison County Library System is offering free online language lessons to its patrons.
The program, Mango, provides user-friendly lessons in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese and English for Spanish speakers though the system’s Web site. Patrons can access the lessons on www.mcls.ms using their library card.
“We’re trying to get the word out that we’re offering it to the public for free,” said Nan Crosby-Hamby, a librarian with the Ridgeland Public Library. “They can log in from home, and they don’t have to download anything.”
Mango has had an average of 50-60 users per month since the program launched five months ago, said library system Director Sandra Sanders. “We’re getting off to a slow start,” she said.
System officials said they would like to boost the number of people using Mango so they can continue offering the lessons.
Ray Myers, library system assistant director and systems administrator, said the program costs about $3,000 a year to operate.
Myers, who was on the language program search committee, said Rosetta Stone also was considered.
“Rosetta Stone was our first choice,” but it was too expensive, he said.
Through step-by-step instruction, Mango uses real-life situations and conversations to teach language.
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