The Palo Alto City Library hopes to attract people who do not normally visit the library by holding contests on its new online library from Jan. 10 to Feb. 14. 

The new online library offers many things including catalogs, that the City Library previously did not provide.

Marleah Augustine, the supervising librarian at the Rinconada Library, says that with the new online catalog users can follow reading lists created by librarians and contribute with other interactive features like submitting book reviews.

The online library is “meant to give people a social aspect of the library,” Augustine said.

Rachel Kellerman, one of the Palo Alto High School librarians, is excited about the online library and thinks it will help out many students.

“It [the online library] is an online website catalog which is multipurpose, and you can interactively comment on it,” Kellerman said. “Many large public libraries have it.”

The Palo Alto City Library hopes to pull more attention to its new online library by having two separate contests from Jan. 10 to Feb. 14.

According to the Palo Alto City Library’s website, the first contest will be a raffle in which people will automatically enter by registering a library account to the new online library.

The first place prize will be a $100 Amazon gift card, the second place prize will be a $25 Crepevine gift card, and the third place prize will be a $20 Hobbes gift card.

The second contest will be a top contributors contest where people can earn points by using the online library to write reviews, rate titles, adding tags, writing comments, and creating lists.

The prize for this competition will be a $25 gift card to Books Inc. A gift card will given to the top kid, the top teen, and the top adult.

Palo Alto High School junior Kiran Majeti is excited about the new online library and is looking forward to the new additions.

“It’s really cool that the library can expand and incorporate technology in this manner,” Majeti said.

Kellerman said she believes the new online library will attract many students from Paly and will allow more technology dependent students to use the Palo Alto Libraries.

“Everyone should get an account and roll in their contest,” Kellerman said.

The winners of both competitions will be announced on Feb. 15.