Digital membership to Singapore Public Library

[paola]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

That was my problem until I found the Digital Catalogue. I think the other links are for browsing at the computers inside the building.

could you please put a link to it? I know it's me, but I really cannot find it!

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

could you please put a link to it? I know it's me, but I really cannot find it!

I'll assume you mean a link to the Digital Catalogue: click here. Look to the upper left corner to log in to your account.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Yes, but for the majority of titles that I'm not sure I want to own, how do I find out? Particularly for authors I haven't read before. That's where libraries excel.

if that floats your boat, that's great, personally I'd rather get $125 of 1 and 2 dollar books than spend it at a facility that is intended to loan free books out

[paola]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

I'll assume you mean a link to the Digital Catalogue: click here. Look to the upper left corner to log in to your account.

thank you so much! works perfectly!

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

125 bucks a year works out to over 10 a month for which several "free and inexpensive" books could be purchased and permanently owned.

welcome to the forums!

$10/month is a great deal when you can take out 10 books at a time and books that might not be inexpensive. Public libraries usually stock a lot of current bestsellers which are usually more than $10 each.

Your comparison is pointless for a quick reader that doesn't want to be restricted to $1 and $2 ebooks. And say you get all $1 books, that's still only 10/month. At the library you can take out 10 per week.

I want to permanently own my favorites that I reread and reread. But that's only a small percentage of what I read in total.

-Marcy

[kindlekitten]

*shrug* my experience with libraries of late has been; they don't have what I want to read, or there is an incredible backlog/waiting list. y'all can obviously do what you like

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by Marcy

I want to permanently own my favorites that I reread and reread. But that's only a small percentage of what I read in total.

Me too.

[redbees]

Terisa, and Loosheesh -

Thanks for the info on the Singapore Library. I successfully registered, and after some floundering, followed Loosheesh's link to the Digital Catalogue...and checked out three books! This was also my first time using Overdrive, and everything went smoothly, thanks to advice I found here on MobileRead.

For anyone who has yet to register, I'd ought to mention that when I went to the Singapore Library's site, using Firefox, as part of the registration process I was asked for my birth date. I immediately accessed the site using Chrome as my browser, and was not asked for this information. (?!) So, if you are requested to supply a birth date, try a different browser (or, of course, fabricate one). This difference in the registration process seems inexplicable, especially since I had tabs open on the site in each browser at the same time, and there was no time lag involved.

[Terisa de morgan]

redbees, I'm glad you've been able to check the books. And about birthday date, yes, I did it with firefox and asked it.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by redbees

For anyone who has yet to register, I'd like to mention that when I went to the Singapore Library's site, using Firefox, as part of the registration process I was asked for my birth date. I immediately accessed the site using Chrome as my browser, and was not asked for this information. (?!)

- That's curious; I wonder why.

I registered with Chrome, and a friend I helped through the registration process used Internet Explorer and nothing was asked about birth dates. Thanks for bringing this up; I almost always use a fabricated DOB online anyway

[thaigreg]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

*shrug* my experience with libraries of late has been; they don't have what I want to read, or there is an incredible backlog/waiting list. y'all can obviously do what you like

Hey kindlekitten,

Do you have access to the Seattle Public Library? They have over 20,000 ebooks you can access.

Greg

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by redbees

Terisa, and Loosheesh -

Thanks for the info on the Singapore Library. I successfully registered, and after some floundering, followed Loosheesh's link to the Digital Catalogue...and checked out three books! This was also my first time using Overdrive, and everything went smoothly, thanks to advice I found here on MobileRead.

For anyone who has yet to register, I'd ought to mention that when I went to the Singapore Library's site, using Firefox, as part of the registration process I was asked for my birth date. I immediately accessed the site using Chrome as my browser, and was not asked for this information. (?!) So, if you are requested to supply a birth date, try a different browser (or, of course, fabricate one). This difference in the registration process seems inexplicable, especially since I had tabs open on the site in each browser at the same time, and there was no time lag involved.

Apologies for asking, but what's the issue with supplying your real date of birth?

[redbees]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Apologies for asking, but what's the issue with supplying your real date of birth?

I suppose the issue is that it has been drilled into me that it is inadvisable to give out personal information (especially on the internet) unless absolutely necessary. I do admit that my birth date and SSN are readily available to anyone who troubles to search, so my caution may be foolish. I mentioned the request for my date of birth because an earlier post had said that during the application process one was asked for very little personal data.

[tech_au]

I just joined and used Firefox and didn't get asked date of birth (weird).
It took me a little while to find an ebook I wanted to read that was available. I suspect this is going to get worse as more people join. How does the reservation system work? Do you get an email when the reserved ebook is ready to be downloaded ?

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by tech_au

How does the reservation system work? Do you get an email when the reserved ebook is ready to be downloaded ?

Yes, that's how it's supposed to work. I haven't received any emails from the Singapore Public Library about reserved books but here is part of a sample email from another digital library I'm a member of, informing me of a reserved book ready for checkout:

"Please visit the ___ Public Library website and select the 'My eHolds' link from the 'My eAccount' page. From there, you'll be able to add this title to your eCart and proceed to check out. If you do not check this title out within 3 days, the hold on this title will expire."

I suppose the Singapore Library will use similar phrasing.