Long Beach California is the 5th lsrgest city in California. It’s the city in which I live. This is a cut and paste of an email I received just now from the Long Beach Public Library System. It is about LBPL’s decision to stop offering free access to Lynda.com due to Lynda. com changing it’s privacy policy as it changes to LinkedIn Learning.
Hello Long Beach Public Library Patron,
You are receiving this email because this email address is associated to a Lynda. com account accessed through LBPL.
We are writing to let you know that as of December 31, 2019, LBPL will no longer offer access to Lynda. com via your Long Beach Public Library card. Though your account will still be active with Lynda. com, you would need another access point to the system in order to complete classes or retrieve your certificates. We recommend you complete any classes in process now, and download or print all your certificates before this date. Library staff will not be able to log on to assist you in retrieving anything from your account.
We understand that Lynda. com is a rich and vital online learning platform, and regret we are unable to renew. Lynda. com is rebranding as LinkedIn Learning, and will require all users to create a public LinkedIn account with full and publicly disclosed personal information in order to continue using this service. After careful discussion, both within Long Beach Public Library, and with library systems around California and across the United States, we feel this is a violation of your privacy rights, as stated in the Public Records Act of the California Government Code.
Library staff are looking for alternative online learning platforms and expect to bring on new services in early 2020. In the meantime, we recommend exploring our current course offerings through Gales Courses which includes hundreds of highly interactive, instructor led classes on a large variety of subjects that you can take entirely online. As a library card holder in good standing, you are entitled to these courses at no cost.
We continue to fulfill our mission by selecting, organizing, and making library materials accessible in a wide variety of formats and look forward to continuing our support of your educational, informational, and recreational goals.