Thing #22

eBooks and Audiobooks are another thing that I'm still learning about, but I think they are an exciting thing, and I try to refer people to them when I can, in a way that won't scare them off. I've had experiences with patrons in which a print copy of a book is not available, but we'll have the ebook instead (I haven't noticed audiobooks so much in all of my searching, which I'm assuming is because we don't have that many of them). Usually people are apprehensive or totally confused when I say "Oh, we have it in eBook format", so I usually try to sell them on it by opening it for them, showing them what it looks like, and demonstrating how to do stuff like turn the pages and zoom in. As expected, some people are not into the idea of reading a book on their computer, but others get over their initial apprehension and say that they will give it a shot.

I looked around on our eBook search page and learned some more about this cool feature. We have a lot of stuff in netLibrary, and I was happy to see that we offer materials in different languages. We also offer the Pimsleur Language series in audiobook format, which is really awesome. It is an excellent yet really expensive series, so it's great that we can offer these materials free of charge on our websites as well as in our libraries for people. I'm excited about the idea of OverDrive audiobooks, but at this point the biggest issue is definately lack of materials! I could see teens potentially being interested in downloading books to their iPods, but with only 8 books under YA Fiction, that's some pretty slim pickings. I think this is a service that we should continue to promote and expand, and I feel that this will someday be a huge part of what we offer. In the meantime, as this technology develops, we as library staff need to keep learning more about it and then teaching it to our patrons.