Rosetta Stone no longer the friend of libraries

I recently had a conversation with my sister Kathy, extolling all of the wonderful features of the online version of Rosetta Stone that was available through the Columbus Library. She was quite interested because her daughter Sydney had shown an interest in learning a foreign language. I went on to tell Kathy that one of the nicest things about the program was that it was available at home via the Columbus library’s web site using only your library card number and pin.

This morning I went to search for the Rosetta Stone link so that I could pass it along to Kathy. Unfortunately, I came up empty in my search. I did notice Mango which is another language program but no Rosetta Stone.

I emailed one of the librarians inquiring about the missing link. He quickly returned my email saying that Rosetta had changed their business model and was no longer offering access through libraries. The library has tried to fill the gap with an agreement with Mango after they were unable to reach an agreement with Rosetta.

The Worthington and Columbus libraries still exceed at being one of our city’s greatest resources. You have to question the business logic of Rosetta in preventing access to their materials through the library system.

If you want to give Mango a try, simply point your web browser to http://www.columbuslibrary.org/ebranch/index.cfm?pageid=18&parentid=855 or search for Mango under premium resources on the library’s home page at http://www.columbuslibrary.org