Library adds audio books to its Internet offerings

Library adds audio books to its Internet offerings

Date published: 7/8/2005

By LUCIA ANDERSON

Library patrons can check out books 24 hours a day now--new best-sellers, reference works, audio books. All it takes is a computer with Internet access and a library card.

Audio books are the latest addition to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library's online offerings. Electronic books have been available for about three years now, according to Janice Black, the library's collection development coordinator, but audio books have been available only since the beginning of the month.

"We've been developing this as a popular way of expanding our collection without busting out of the walls," said Ann Haley, the library's adult services coordinator.

The CRRL purchases access to the electronic books--print and audio--from netlibrary.com. All library patrons need to do is go to the library's Web site--librarypoint.org--and click on "Get eBooks/NetLibrary." Or go directly to netlibrary.com.

Haley and Black said the library plans to have instructional programs in the fall for patrons not familiar with downloading audio files.

Black said the eBook program has been very successful. There are 46,172 titles in the collection, and in the past 12 months, 26,000 users have accessed the service.

The most popular title in the first six months of this year, according to the library's records, was "Philosophical Perspectives on Music." It was closely followed by "Broadband Microstrip Antennas" with 70 hits and "Software Engineering for Game Developers" with 58 hits.

As can be deduced from those titles, most of the eBooks are nonfiction.

"You're not going to cozy up around a machine for the experience of a good read," Haley said. "You're going for nuggets of information. It's a reference tool."

She suggested that the online library, including the library's online databases, is a tremendous boon for students burning the midnight oil on research papers.

"It's yet another way the library is never closed," she said with a smile.

The audio book collection currently lists 854 titles from Recorded Books, including all types of fiction and nonfiction. Many of them are language programs, teaching listeners tongues from Arabic to Vietnamese. There are 35 languages for English speakers to learn; and English lessons for speakers of 13 other languages.

Approximately 30 new titles are added to the audio books every month. The library adds 5,000 to 10,000 eBooks twice a year.

The great advantage of the electronic program, Black said, is that patrons can get books without having to wait for the most popular titles to be returned to the shelves. Current best-sellers like David McCullough's "1776" are available right away.

"There's no hold list," she said.

And it doesn't cost a cent.

To reach LUCIA ANDERSON: 540/374-5405 landerson@freelancestar.com

Go online to librarypoint.org, and click on "Get eBooks/Net Library," or go directly to netlibrary.com. The user must set up an account, but there is no cost. All that is required is user name, password, security prompt, name, e-mail address and library card bar code number. Once logged in to the netlibrary site, the user can search by title, author, keyword or full text. There is a separate section for audio books. The same search tools apply, but the user also can search for a particular narrator. Library patrons also can access the electronic holdings through the library catalog. Ebooks will show "electronic resource" in the description window, and a link to netlibrary.com is provided. Ebooks can be viewed for 15 minutes or checked out for four hours at a time. It is possible to print pages from the book, but copyright laws prohibit printing the whole book. Netlibrary's "Reading tips" cautions users that this sort of activity is monitored. Audio books are licensed to the user for 21 days; after that they won't play anymore. They can be renewed for an additional three weeks. Up to 10 audio books may be checked out at any given time. The audio books may be played on any computer with Microsoft® Windows Media® player v9 and above. They also can be downloaded into handheld media player devices, such as the Creative Zen portable media center and the iRiver H340. The portable devices have to support Windows Media Player; iPod won't work. They also need to have bookmarking capability so the reader's place isn't lost when the device is turned off. Books can be played on FM radios, if the portable device is equipped with an FM transmitter. Having sufficient memory also is important, since the book files are quite large. Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," for instance, is 99 megabytes. As with the eBooks, there are restrictions on copying. Encryptions on the audio books will make any CD copy unusable.

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Date published: 7/8/2005