National Belly Laugh Day officially falls on Jan. 24. April Fool’s Day is just around the corner, and all of April is declared National Humor Month.

You may think of these as fun yet insignificant days, but think again. Laughter can be vital for fueling positive energy, happiness, good health, connections and creativity.

“Our sense of humor helps us cope with the mounting daily stress we all find in our lives today; it sustains the spirit of joy, aliveness and hope, even on our toughest days,” wrote Paul McGhee, Ph.D.

Sure, Dr. McGhee, but where can one find laughter these days?

Grand County Library District is here to the rescue.

All five library branches are open, even for browsing, and we have gifts of joy and laughter to check out with your library card.

Need help in finding a book, DVD, kit, or CD? Our online PIKA catalog, found on gcld.org, can make finding a chuckle a snap. Type “Comedy” in the search box, click on the blue drop down box and select “Subject” and within .75 seconds, you have access to 17,194 titles that may pull a smile or a full belly laugh from you.

You can then filter down the options by numerous categories, from Available At, Format, Reading Level, Added in the Last, Awards and more to pinpoint your style of humor.

In less than a minute, you could be pulling off a shelf or placing a hold on the following:

• Newly added DVD comedy film collections

• Comic books like Garfield or Calvin and Hobbes (which live in the Dewey Decimal section of J 741.5, but also check out Graphic Novel sections)

• Kits, like Minute to Win It, based on the popular NBC TV show and includes everything you need to challenge yourself and family while laughing aloud

Examples of comedic books listed in this search:

• “Is This Anything?” by Jerry Seinfeld came out a few months ago

• Another new release is the often-hilarious journal entries found in “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey

• “Dad Jokes for Kids!” by Jimmy Niro can get a pained chortle from the entire family.

If anything by David Sedaris, Tina Fey, Trevor Noah, Phoebe Robinson or other funny writers put you in a jovial mood, you’re in luck. Five out of five GCLD libraries are home to at least a handful of books to encourage laughing.

Want to stay home and giggle? With the same “comedy” catalog search, Kanopy eContent has 705 available movies or shows for all ages that you can stream, and OverDrive pops-up 141 eBooks and eAudiobooks.

When can you find time to read? Exercising or driving while listening to a story that makes you laugh are possibly the only forms of multitasking one should do. Using audiobooks, books on CDs, or the read-aloud Wonderbooks are fabulous ways of giving your eyes a rest and tantalizing your ears and your sense of humor.

Need further convincing of the importance of laughter? Read “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life” by Jennifer Lynn Aaker.

In the description of her book, she quotes President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” And this insight is from “the second least naturally funny president ever (after Franklin Pierce).”

GCLD helps everyday be a National Belly Laugh Day.