Blog Posts by Subject: Electronic books

When you check out an ebook from the library, you get to keep it for the full loan period (7, 14 or 21 days) before the file is no longer accessible to you.

Which means you will never get an overdue fee!

But there may be times when you want to return a book early once you finish it, decide you don't like it, or want to make room to check out more books — and that way the next person in line for it will have access that much sooner. Think of it as being a good digital neighbor.

It's now easier to download and request holds on EPUB, PDF, Kindle and e-audio, music and video (a.k.a. OverDrive) while in the library catalog, BiblioCommons. You no longer have to sign in to a separate site with your barcode.

Your electronic holds and checked out items will appear alongside physical books and materials you have out, so you can better prioritize your must-read list!

If it has happened to our patrons at the Grand Concourse Library and myself...

...then it must be happening somewhere else!

Here we are with our exciting new Amazon Kindles, and nothing to read except for Jane Eyre or Alice in the Wonderland — not that there's anything wrong with that!

But in this blog post, I am going to show you a couple of tips and tricks for getting books on your Kindle, even if the titles you want are unavailable.

For the first part of this series, I want to talk about a few of the formats commonly used for reading digital text as well as the tools — software and devices — we can use to read them.

Library ebooks are available in EPUB, PDF, and Kindle format. The Library also subscribes to hundreds of databases, some of which will allow you to download articles or page images for personal use in PDF format.

The other day someone asked if I still read "regular books." Have I become anti-paper with my new Kindle love? The answer to that is, look at the paper cuts on my fingers. I am a fan of reading, whether it's in book format or electronic. During my commute I use my Kindle because it's lighter to carry around, but I still love the feeling of a heavy book on my lap when I read in my apartment. When looking for material to read or download, I can now do all of my searching and downloading in New York Public Library's catalog. Thus my latest eReading searching tip: keep it simple, use one catalog.

After the unfortunate death of my Sony Reader, I went through the five stages of grief, as the loss of my device was a very dramatic event. I denied that it was broken, I threw a temper tantrum, I told a Best Buy employee that I would do anything to have it back, and I cried on the train, but I finally came to accept that I had sat on my Sony Reader and I alone was to blame. As I browsed sadly through the eNYPL catalog, images of the distinctly curved cracked screen flashed through my head, and I imagined the day when I could once again comfortably read a book on my 1 1/2 hour (sometimes standing) train commute. Finally the day came when I was united with a new eReader — 

If you missed the big news, The New York Public Library now offers free ebooks for your Kindle! To celebrate, I've put together a somewhat exhaustive list of science fiction ebook titles to make it easy to browse them at a glance.

Click to go directly to any author: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Vladimir Sorokin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Need help? Check out this useful step-by-step guide to downloading Kindle ebooks. Many of these titles are also available for the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony E-reader as well.

Have you heard? Library books are now available to borrow on Kindle devices and other devices with Kindle reading software (Windows, Mac, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7) as well as their Kindle Cloud Reader (read without downloading software in your web browser).

Here is a walkthrough of how it works. (If you're scrolling-averse, check out this video from OverDrive.)

Do you have an eReader? Is part of the appeal that it looks like you're living in the future? Have you found yourself wishing for more fantastical books to match your futuristic reading device? 

Look no further.

A friend of mine has recently taken to reading Moby Dick on her phone, using the Kindle for Android app. Although I like to make fun of her for reading such a formidable book on a tiny screen, she is adamant that her method is much less intimidating, because she doesn’t have to 1) lug the book around, or 2) face its visible girth, taunting her daily with unread pages. No matter your feelings on print v. electronic books, the classics, as well as the not-so-classics, are on the Web and ready to download to your computer and portable e-reading device for free.