E-Books...Free Access Through JCPL!

It seems that no matter where I go these days people are talking about e-books! It stands to reason that we are talking about e-books at the library. After all, books and reading and books and listening are a big part of what we do. However, these days conversations about e-books happen everywhere I go; at community meetings, on Facebook, at school events, around the dinner table at home. It is nearly becoming a daily occurrence. Even Andy Rooney did a segment on 60 Minutes about e-books recently! E-books are a hot topic!

According to a recent Northwest Indiana Times news article, 66% of libraries nationwide provide free access to e-books. We are one of those libraries. Since 2002, we have provided access to NetLibrary, where you can choose from thousands of downloadable digital audio books or browse instructional e-books online. You will find fiction classics and thousands of titles on a variety of topics.

At Bartleby.com you can read hundreds of free public domain e-books from the most critically acclaimed authors in history. This collection includes classic fiction, nonfiction and poetry, as well as several reference volumes including the Cambridge History of English and American Literature.

At Gutenberg.org you can download over 30,000 free e-books to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device. We provide access to all of this e-content via our library website www.myjcpl.org. As a staff, we are constantly reading about and discussing our options for e-content so that we may provide the best possible collection that our resources will allow. Please let us know how we are doing and continue to bring us your questions! We love to talk about e-books!

In 2010 alone, e-books were used nearly 900 times, and patron interest is growing by leaps and bounds as evidenced by the numerous questions we get each day and an increase in monthly downloads.

*Article contributed by JCPL Director, Patty Stringfellow