As you know, we've contracted with Overdrive, to provide free eBook content to our library customers. Currently we have 1725 eBooks titles in our collection including adult, children and teen fiction and nonfiction. We'll be adding more titles on a monthly basis. When we purchase titles, we own them, so our collection will be ever-growing. ACL Lending Policies
I want to share our lending policies for eBooks available through Overdrive. Here are the main points. Please comment if you’d like other questions answered.
· ACL and COH library card holders may check out Overdrive eBooks. Due to subscription agreements, other library system library barcodes will not be recognized.
o A PIN is also required for checkout.
· Customers are allowed to have 4 items checked out at a time.
· At the time of check out, customers may choose to keep a title for 7 days or 14 days.
· Customers may have up to 6 items in their cart at any time.
· Customers are allowed to have 4 items on request at a time.
o An email address is required to place a request. Notification that a request is available for check out is sent to this email address.
o After notification, available requested items are held for 3 days. After that time, the request moves to the next person on the hold list.
· It is possible to return items early.
· Customers must pay their fines down below $10, in order to be able to check out eBooks. (This matches our print fine policy).
· eBooks cannot be renewed, but as soon as the lending period expires, if no one else has requested the title, it may be checked out again.
Question--If I have a library card from another county but am registered in Anoka County I still wouldn't be able to check out eBooks? Is that right?
ReplyDeleteYes, that's right. Our subscription and costs are based on population served (population of Anoka County), so that's the agreement we have to live by.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between putting items in a cart and on request.
ReplyDeleteWhen an item is available you can add it to your cart and then it can be checked out. When an item is not available because someone else already has it checked out, you are given the option to place that item on request. You will be notified that your request is available as soon as the checked out item is returned.
ReplyDeleteI know I've heard it's coming in Jan. Is that Jan 1st or what is the general time frame??
ReplyDeleteOur beta site is in the Overdrive queue for testing. I've been told mid-January as a tentative launch date. I hope to have a more definite date from them sometime next week.
ReplyDeleteCan you return books early from the Overdrive Digital Media Console on an I-phone?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question and the answer is a qualified "yes". Please see the most recent post dated today, for additional information about how to return eBooks early, whether using an eReader device or a smartphone/mobile device.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking!
Question --- if 2 people in a household use the same email address, have 2 cards, can they both download to the same device thus enabling them to check out a total of 8 ebooks at any one time and have double the amount of requests?
ReplyDeleteI am still confused about the carts and requests: 6 in a cart, 4 on request, 4 checked out. Are these 3 different entities or do any of these overlap?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question, about whether 2 people can share an eReader, using 2 different library cards. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for you right now. BUT I will try this tonight when I get home and let you know tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the question about whether 2 different library cards can each check out their limit of books (4 each or 8 total) and put them all on the same device: I was able to try this on a Nook, and yes - it is possible. I guess that makes sense, since the checkouts are tied to the library cards, not the device. The down side: 2 people have to share the nook and can't read their books at the same time. :(
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the question about cart limits, check out limits and request limits: Yes, these are 3 different entities.
ReplyDeleteAs you're browsing or "shopping" for your books, you're allowed to put as many as 6 titles in your cart. However, when you go to check out, you are limited to having a maximum of 4 books checked out on your library card at any given time.
You're allowed to have 6 titles in your cart to make browsing and picking titles easier. The idea is that as you encounter titles you like while browsing, you can add them to your cart, but if you come across something you like better later in the same browsing session, you can just remove the earlier pick from your cart during the check out process and only check out the title(s) you really want.
Requests are limited to 4 titles. Like our print materials request limit, this limit is in place to allow more people a chance at popular titles.
Hope this helps to clarify things a little….
If someone has a tablet computer, other than an iPad, and assuming that its a Windows-based machine, will patrons be able to just download and register Adobe Digital Editions and run the application as if it were on a lap-top?
ReplyDeleteAssuming they can download Adobe Digital Editions, they should be able to download books from Overdrive and use Adobe Digital Editions to read the books on their device.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that there will be fewer copies of an actual library book now that the e-books are available?
ReplyDeleteNo, not necessarily. This is an additional format, like large print or audio. We can't assume everybody will have an eReader or want to use this format, so we'll continue to meet our customers' print needs.
ReplyDelete