At the Blount County Public Library, we serve as a vital participant in the community as a gathering place--for connections with information, digital technology, people and entertainment resources. Serving an average of 1,400 people per day in a community of 125,000+, we lend from an excellent print materials collection of more than 240,000 items (E-books, new-release movie DVDs, music CDs audiobooks on CD & MP3 & more). Multiple Internet databases (Reference USA, Gale Courses - free online noncredit courses with instructors, Lynda.com, PowerSpeak Languages, Tennessee Electronic Library and many more). Ancestry.com and HertitageQuest are genealogy databases offered in addition to an excellent genealogy collection which is a tourist destination for folks from all over the United States. To connect people with community resources, the library hosts many types of events--informational programs, travelogues, author presentations, concerts and festivals--heritage, international, book, Hispanic. To be the best resource we can be, staff members serve on community service organization boards and participate in community forums to share information.