eBooks for Kindle now Available

Last week, Overdrive, the supplier we use to provide our eBooks, announced that customers can now download books to a Kindle from the Washington Anytime Library.   Almost all the eBooks in our collection can be used with Kindle devices or apps. 

Posted in Service, Technology by Daniel Heaton on Monday, September 26th 2:38pm   |   4 comments

E-readers and eBooks

Lately I have seen a lot more E-readers in use at the library. It seems to be quite a mix of Sony readers, Nooks (both color and e-ink), IPads, Literati, and the occasional Android or IPhone. Each of these E-readers will work with the books available on Washington Anytime Library. The Android and IPhones as well as the IPad all require downloading an Overdrive App to the device. All the other E-readers will require downloading Adobe Digital Editions to your computer before you download and transfer books from your computer to your E-reader.

Here are a couple of tips for using your E-reader with the Washington Anytime Library.  First, there is currently a selection of 1,248 eBooks, with more being added monthly. Of that collection it is not unusual to have 75% of them checked out at any given time. To find those titles that are immediately available you can do an advanced search, select EPUB eBook as the format, and check the box next to “only show copies with titles available.”

The second tip, if you are interested in reading classics you can access over 15,000 of the public domain books that are made available by Project Gutenberg.  These include works by such authors as Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Marry Shelly and Alfred Tennyson.  If you are looking at the Washington Anytime Library site, on the lower left side of the page is a link to additional eBooks. These books do not show up in the standard search so will have to be looked for separately.

If you would be interested sharing your experience or tips with the E-readers, or eBooks, leave a reply.

Posted in Technology by Daniel Heaton on Tuesday, March 1st 10:18am   |   0 comments

New Phone App for Downloadable Books

Great news for those of you who would like to use MP3 audiobooks or Ebooks directly on your phone devices!  Overdrive has just released an IPhone and an Android app for downloading titles from the Washington Anytime Library directly to your device.  Below is the press release from Overdrive about their new app. You can find download instructions here, just choose your mobile device from the right hand side of the page.

Posted in Technology by Daniel Heaton on Wednesday, December 8th 2:41pm   |   0 comments

Playaways

Answers to your Playaway questions.  Here are the three most common questions that I am receiving about Playaways. 

Posted in Technology by Daniel Heaton on Saturday, October 9th 11:20am   |   9 comments

Let ELF Keep Track of What You Have Checked Out

Elf is a web-based and email tool for library users to keep track of their library borrowings.  Elf is like a personal assistant, whose task is to help with keeping track of what one has on loan from the library. More »

Posted in Technology by Meredith Wagner on Friday, October 8th 12:00am   |   1 comments

Download Books Today

With the Anytime Library you can download media 24/7.  Your library is always open! Get started with a Guided Tour or our Quick-Start Guide. More »

Posted in Technology by Meredith Wagner on Friday, October 8th 12:00am   |   0 comments

Ebooks

Books for electronic readers are now available through the Washington Anytime Library.  You can access the Washington Anytime Library through the Jefferson County Library website.  Downloadable items can also be found by searching the library catalog.  If you see [Downloadable Ebook] after the title that is one of the books that can be read on a Sony Reader or Barnes and Noble Nook. 

Posted in Technology by Daniel Heaton on Monday, August 23rd 1:17pm   |   1 comments