By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

NORTH SHELBY — Shelby County residents looking to brush up on skills for job hunting should look no further than the North Shelby Library and its new ed2go program.

The program, in which community members can take six-week online courses in different subjects, kicked off in September, according to reference librarian Michelyn Reid.

“We are super, super excited about this program,” she said.

Course subjects include accounting and finance, business, college readiness, computer applications, design and composition, health care and medical, language and arts, law and legal, personal development, teaching and education, technology and writing and publishing. Each course is led by an instructor, Reid said.

“It’s a real person on the other end,” she said.

Courses are free for any Shelby County library card holder. Some users from out of the county have chosen to purchase cards to participate, Reid said.

“We have some people who have purchased library cards for $30 even though they don’t live here, because it’s worth it to them,” she said. “You would pay over $100 to take these through a community college.”

New courses begin every six weeks. The next round of courses will begin Oct. 17. Those interested can sign up as late as a week after classes start.

While courses aren’t intended to be equivalent to college classes, they can serve as much-needed refresher courses, Reid said.

“If you were entering the job market and you haven’t worked in a long time, they have keyboarding courses,” she said. “It helps give people more confidence.”

Currently, about 60 people are enrolled in courses. Library officials hope that number will grow as offerings increase.

“A new course was added at the end of September called ‘Navigating Divorce,’” she said. “Every month they add new courses — one, if not more.”

Reid said the library decided to offer this service to help people in Shelby County navigate a new economy.

“What a great service to the community to be able to offer these classes for free, especially with so many people going back to work and needing to learn new skills or brush up on skills they may have lost,” she said.

Anyone can sign up by going to Northshelbylibrary.org and clicking on the “24/7 Library” link on the left-hand side, then clicking on the “ed2go” link. Pass codes for each course will be emailed to enrollees.