Prairie Creek Library Now Offers Access to Free eBooks
by Sara Peters
Imagine if the library was open 24 hours a day.
Or that there’s no such thing as the weekend. Or no snowy day to deter you from leaving the house to check out or return a book.
Free books are now available round the clock, inclement weather or not for Prairie Creek Public Library patrons through a new online service called OverDrive.
OverDrive is a free library for eBooks that can be read through eReaders such as Kindle, NOOK, or an iPad and iPhone or a computer.
“Think about going to your library at midnight or 1 a.m.,” Prairie Creek Library Director Kristin Glatz said. “You don’t have to be book-less for the weekend.”
Although eBooks are available for purchase night or day ranging from $2.99 to $12, OverDrive offers many of the same titles - for free.
OverDrive is the exact same concept as a brick and mortar library. People can check out books for two weeks at a time. There’s a certain number of available books at a given time. If they’re checked out, you can reserve books.
But at the end of the two weeks, the book simply disappears. There’s no such thing as returning books or
overdue books.
“It is definitely the way of the future for libraries,” Glatz said.
Libraries throughout the state also have access to the OverDrive collection.
OverDrive can be considered an extension of Prairie Creek, she said, in that it’s a different and broader collection of books of all genres, including new releases, children’s books and popular fiction by authors such as James Patterson and Danielle Steel.
To begin using OverDrive, people must have a valid library card and first call the Prairie Creek Public Library to establish their account. A library staffer will set up the access - the process takes a few short minutes - using the number on the back of their library card and the patron’s last name as their pin.
And then patrons are free to check out eBooks anytime they choose.
People who don’t have an eReader can download adobe digital acrobat to their personal computer for free. Or they can download the Kindle app to an iPhone or iPad.
Although checking out eBooks may be the future of libraries, Glatz believes there will always be a place for print books.
“If you’re a reader, you embrace both,” she said. “I don’t think print books are ever going to go away.”
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
