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Originally Posted by fantasyfan
This is a service I didn't realise even existed! It sounds like a great idea!  |
It is - it's fab! Whenever I fancy a new book, I just go online, and 2 mins later, I'm reading!
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Originally Posted by fantasyfan
When I asked the librarian at our local public library about borrowing e-books, she told me that one could borrow books from the library in Dublin via the internet through the library service there. But she said that this was not possible in our locality because our population density was too low to make its provision worthwhile. I have a feeling that we don't have the wonderful service you describe on a national basis as surely our librarian would have heard about it. It's worth my checking it out though.
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Population density shouldn't matter (whereabouts are you, actually?). AFAIK the Irish libraries work the same way as the UK ones; it's not individual libraries that lend out the ebooks, it's a centralised system for each district - Hampshire, Oxfordshire, London, etc. Had a quick look round online, and this seems to be the case - I found a list but it only mentioned Dublin, Kildare and Waterford. However, it was pretty old, so it's worth asking - staff in any public institution often don't get told things! According to this, there are 31 libraries offering ebooks
http://www.irishpublishingnews.com/2...nential-scale/
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Originally Posted by fantasyfan
Thanks for explaining it to me.  |
Glad to help!
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Originally Posted by carpetmojo
I'd like to know about this service which you make sound very accessible in the UK - 'cos you can't borrow physbooks from a library you aren't a member of, which usually requires residency qualifications to join. There are a very few that don't, I believe.
And you then also can't borrow an ebook from "your" library if it does not have a digital collection and facilities.
So you cannot use the library as you describe, unless you're lucky enough to live in an area that has a digital service.
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Here you go - there's a list kindly provided by another MR user.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ight=libraries
Yes, it's quite true that not all of them have signed up, and that few of them will allow you to be a member if you're not living in the area, but it's worth asking! Plus, as you mention, some libraries don't have geographic restictions - one of the posts in that thread mentiond some. And yes, not all libraries have signed up to provide ebooks, but the last time I looked it up, around 60-odd had (they're not all listed on the thread above), and as I said, most of them cover districts, not individual libraries, so that's a good proportion of the UK system covered.
There's a useful article in Computeractive about this
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/n...-ebook-library