DeKalb Libraries Anticipate Offering eBooks By Year End
Decatur Metro | December 7, 2011In a comment response to our recent “More than 7 Questions about E-Books” post, DeKalb County Public Library Director Alison Weissinger writes in with news…
DeKalb County Public Library will be offering eBooks through the OverDrive platform by the end of this year. DeKalb currently uses OverDrive for downloadable audiobooks. OverDrive has recently made arrangements with Amazon to allow for public library lending of Kindle format eBooks. About 90% of the titles available through OverDrive for public library lending should be Kindle-compatible. Other formats included on the platform are ePub and .pdf and will work with a variety of other devices such as Nook, Kobo, Sony, iPad, etc.
DeKalb’s starter collection will consist of several hundred titles, but we also expect demand to be very high. OverDrive has a queuing system, so you can place titles you want on hold and be notified by email when it is your turn. The Library’s budget for buying materials continues to be limited due to County budget cuts, but we will increase the collection as funding allows.
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Fantastic news!
Huzzah!
Cool! How do you borrow an ebook? Is it like renting a movie from iTunes, where there’s an expiration date?
cfn-
for kindle users (assuming it is the same for all overdrive systems) you can borrow online through the library’s website and have the book delivered to your kindle through your amazon account. you select a 7, 14 or 21 day loan period. after the due date it still shows up in your kindle library but you can no longer access it. you can also return before the due date (under ‘manage your kindle account’ on amazon) if you are finished early if you want to free up the space on your library card or let someone else on the waiting list for the book get it (gwinnett has a 10 ebook per account limit, guess dekalb will have similar). and there is a limit on how many copies can go out at a time, so there is often a wait list for popular books. for example, if the library has purchased 2 copies of the ebook “the help” and there are 25 people on the list, you have to wait until your turn just like a real book. might take 12-13 weeks if everyone keeps it 2 weeks. when you get to the front of the line you get an email and have a day or so to download the book or else you get bumped off the list. not as convenient as buying it from amazon, but hey, it’s free.
not sure about other formats, probably is similar.
dekalb already has a lot of audiobooks for online downloads which use the overdrive system, though I have had trouble with mac compatibility. works on ipod but I had to download onto a windows computer to load to the ipod. maybe this has been changed, haven’t tried it in a while. wonderful material for a long drive with children. this material was on an honor system where you promise to erase it after the loan period ended, not sure if that is still the case. no way to early return as far as I could tell.
Hooray!
Yeah! Now I can cease my nefarious activity of pretending like I still live at my previous address in another state in order to remain part of their library system that has been lending eBooks since at least 2005. Thanks, Dekalb County Public Library System for putting me back on the straight and narrow!
Go DeKalb Libraries!!! Trendsetting idea!!
Just in time for me to move to Fulton.
Yippeeee!