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New Way to Check Out eBooks
Get out your library cards: Now you can wirelessly download electronic books from your local library using the Apple iPad or an Android tablet.
Last week, OverDrive Inc. released OverDrive Media Console for the iPad, a free app from Apple's App Store. With the app, you can now borrow eBooks for reading on the go with a tablet.
You can already borrow an eBook from a library using an eReader, including the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, but you'll need a PC and a USB cable for downloading and synching. Amazon's Kindle doesn't allow borrowing eBooks from libraries.
For the past week, I borrowed and wirelessly downloaded digital books onto tablets primarily using OverDrive, the largest distributor of eBooks for libraries. I tested the OverDrive Media Console for the iPad. I also used the Dell Streak 7 tablet to test the app on the Android operating system; this app also works on Android smartphones. An iPhone app is available.
The biggest upside, of course: They're free. In comparison, digital bookstore apps like Amazon's Kindle, Apple's iBooks and the Barnes & Noble Nook app charge around $10 a book. Local libraries pay for licenses to each eBook just like they pay for each physical book. Lending periods vary among libraries, from seven to 21 days, and some libraries let patrons set due dates. Fines or late fees are nonexistent because digital access to the books expires on a set due date, at which point titles lock up and users are prompted to delete the titles.
There's a major downside to borrowing digital books. If the book you want is checked out, you still have to wait until someone returns it to borrow it. OverDrive's licenses allow one book copy per person, so several people can't simultaneously borrow the same eBook. Libraries can buy several licenses for a title so they can have multiple copies of popular books for borrowing. I found seven eBook copies of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in my Washington, D.C., public library system.
Book selection is also a challenge. According to fiscal records, my library's physical book collection numbers well over two million books, while its OverDrive titles total about 11,000 eBooks. And only a portion of those were in the EPUB format, which is the only format that works with the Android, iPhone and the iPad apps. That meant the selection for me is pretty small. Smaller libraries have even fewer eBooks from which to choose. Users can't borrow digital content from libraries where they don't have library cards.
OverDrive serves more than 13,000 libraries with a catalog of 400,000 titles from 1,000 publishers, but it's possible your library may not use this system (check OverDrive.com for participating libraries). The spokesman said the company plans an app for the BlackBerry by June and hopes to enable wireless downloads on other devices in the future.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Local Libraries go High Tech: Checkout FREE eBooks with your Library card
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