A Book by Any Other Name

Posted January 9, 2013 by Julie Steenson

Yesterday was a busy day at my local library.  A recent phone call from a patron began with, “I can’t believe you have only one copy of this book…”  He wasn’t talking about the copy on our shelves, but about our virtual e-collection that we share with other libraries in our state (New Hampshire).   The discussion turned to an explanation about library costs for eBooks versus what a patron might pay on Amazon for a Kindle download, as well as a referral to other sources of free eBooks (such as Project Gutenberg and Amazon’s Lending Library), and lastly, of course, a brief lesson on how to search only for available titles one can read right now on the state’s downloadable eBook consortium.

This call was followed by a visiting patron, Nook in hand, who needed help to access the downloadable collection. Behind her stood a patron who wanted to download an audiobook to her iPhone…and a young lady of 12 with her new Kindle Fire… and a mom, with a stack of thirty picture books.

A recent webinar I took also filled me in on the Kobo , but I haven’t seen one of those yet.

Copies of our Guide to Free Downloadable eBooks and Audiobooks keep flying off the counter. I guess it was a big year for eReaders!  As my tiny library only serves 5000 residents, I can only imagine what big city librarians are doing to keep up with the different e-formats and different devices.  The stack of picture books was a welcome relief, but in the end, the transactions were the same – helping a reader connect with his book.  It was a good day to be a librarian.