Free Electronic Museum Passes Now Available Through Libraries

Nova Scotia library card holders can now borrow a pass to visit Nova Scotia museums free of charge.

Nova Scotia's Provincial Library has teamed up with the Nova Scotia Museum to make sure anyone who wants to visit the museums can do so by borrowing a downloadable pass from the libraries' digital media sites until Sept. 5. The project is a pilot to see how the pass is used.

"This summer, we want everyone to visit one or more of our excellent museums," said Tony Ince, Minister of Communities, Culture and Heritage. "This free electronic pass will allow more Nova Scotians to experience and enjoy our province's rich history and culture."

The culture pass program will allow Nova Scotians to explore the diverse cultural and learning activities, events and programs offered through the provincial museum system.

Once someone has borrowed a pass, they can visit as many of the 28 museums in the province as they wish. The loan period is up to three weeks, but the sooner people return it, the sooner others can use it. It is expected to be a high-demand item.

"Making this pass available free of charge will allow many more people to visit our museum and learn about the Atlantic fishery," said Angela Saunders, general manager of the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. "We'll be exposed to new audiences through the library electronic borrowing system, and they'll have a chance to see something quite different."

The pass is an electronic pass, that will be borrowed through the ebook and audiobook database known as Overdrive. Like all digital media available through Nova Scotia's public libraries, electronic passes are available to anyone with a public library card, access to the Internet and a smartphone or tablet.

The borrower downloads a culture pass onto a smartphone or tablet, then presents it for entry to the museum. The pass can be used during the lending period as many times as the borrower wishes. Once the lending period is over, the pass file will disappear from the device.

Information about the locations of museums in the Nova Scotia family of museums and hours of operation is available online at http://museum.novascotia.ca .

Nova Scotians can get a free library card by visiting a nearby public library. A map of Nova Scotia's public libraries can be found at http://library.novascotia.ca/map .

Details on how the electronic culture pass works are available at http://museum.novascotia.ca/culturepass .