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soulfuldog · 02-10-2013, 10:27 AM

I too had a wee search online but like Witty Username already says, you need to be more specific about which library it is you are registered on (if it's not Birmingham).

In the meantime, from the mention of Bloomsbury I searched and ended up at the "ebooks from Birmingham libraries" page (http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/ebooks), which then provides a link to the actual online library (most use Overdrive) and that link is:

birmingham-uk.lib.overdrive.com

If you click the 'Sign In' link at the top of that page, you should then be able to log in with your library card number. If it's not the right library, you won't be able to log in anyway!

The basics for the use of any online library are that you need to download and install Adobe Digital Editions to get library books, there is no way round this (unless you have one of the newer e-readers like the T1/T2 which allow you to do it directly via the e-reader). I have it installed on my PC and ONLY use it for library books and nothing else, my own collection of ebooks is managed with Calibre.

Once you've installed and set up ADE, when you checkout the library book from the website, it will download an .acsm file onto your computer (yourbooktitle.acsm) and you simply click on that and it will open up in ADE. I then just close ADE and open up the folder it stores your books in (which is normally My Documents > My Digital Editions) and find the .epub of the book I've just downloaded. Then just copy it across onto my ereader and I've got 7 or 14 days to read it before it expires.

You can choose to return it before the period expires by opening up ADE again, and clicking on the arrow on the book cover and choose the option to return. I also delete the expired books here, so I've only ever got one or two books in ADE at any one time.

02-10-2013, 10:27 AM	#3
soulfuldog I ♥ Calibre Posts: 2,073 Karma: 5678911 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis, Voyage, Sony PRS-350, Hudl2	I too had a wee search online but like Witty Username already says, you need to be more specific about which library it is you are registered on (if it's not Birmingham). In the meantime, from the mention of Bloomsbury I searched and ended up at the "ebooks from Birmingham libraries" page (http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/ebooks), which then provides a link to the actual online library (most use Overdrive) and that link is: birmingham-uk.lib.overdrive.com If you click the 'Sign In' link at the top of that page, you should then be able to log in with your library card number. If it's not the right library, you won't be able to log in anyway! The basics for the use of any online library are that you need to download and install Adobe Digital Editions to get library books, there is no way round this (unless you have one of the newer e-readers like the T1/T2 which allow you to do it directly via the e-reader). I have it installed on my PC and ONLY use it for library books and nothing else, my own collection of ebooks is managed with Calibre. Once you've installed and set up ADE, when you checkout the library book from the website, it will download an .acsm file onto your computer (yourbooktitle.acsm) and you simply click on that and it will open up in ADE. I then just close ADE and open up the folder it stores your books in (which is normally My Documents > My Digital Editions) and find the .epub of the book I've just downloaded. Then just copy it across onto my ereader and I've got 7 or 14 days to read it before it expires. You can choose to return it before the period expires by opening up ADE again, and clicking on the arrow on the book cover and choose the option to return. I also delete the expired books here, so I've only ever got one or two books in ADE at any one time. Last edited by soulfuldog; 02-10-2013 at 10:34 AM.