Ebook availability at libraries

[jerrywojo]

My local library system here just outside Chicago provides digital downloads including eBooks. My Media Mall

I'm finding among the fiction I read,(mystery-Sci/Fi) the selections are slim to well nothing. There are titles I would be interested in but are always checked out.

They mainly have mobi format with a few epubs. Last I checked there were a total of 11 epubs available among all genres!

Interested to know how other libraries are doing with the availability of ebooks.

Is there a waiting list for the e-titles you wish to read? Are paper equivalents more available than their electronic counterparts?

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by jerrywojo

Interested to know how other libraries are doing with the availability of ebooks.

I don't really do the library thing on eBooks but I HAVE looked at the current selection for my local library and can give you an idea of how things are going on this front: not so great.

They have a decent selection of things in general but by decent I mean about the selection of Barnes & Nobles bargain section with maybe a smattering of extra titles here and there. Nothing mind blowing and it still needs tons of expansion to be truly worthwhile.

And I have noticed wait estimates on some of the book entries that (surely!) must convince some people to just go to a decent ebook retailer and pay the 7.99USD required to read their (honestly less than worthwhile) book. Who in their right mind waits 1-3 months to read a Nora Roberts novel when you consider that waiting those 1-3 months will put you massively behind while she trucks away at her 8-9 books a month schedule (taken as an average)?

Still, things can only get better. And for the library dependent eBook reading people who are frothing at the bit for more publicly served books I'll bet it can't get better fast enough.

[KarenH]

The first thing I would recommend is to check to see if your library has a reciprocal lending agreement with any other libraries in the area. A lot of them do, and you may find one that has a better selection.

Unfortunately though, it looks like there just aren't many books out there in the Sci Fi category - I checked the Seattle Public Library, which has over 10,000 epub titles, and even they only have 255 Sci Fi titles.

As for availability, wait times do tend to be long sometimes so the library is not the best option for books you want to read RIGHT NOW, but for titles that just look interesting and you think you might want to read them sometime, you can put them on hold and the library will email you when they become available. There is also a wish list option where you can keep track of books they have that you may want to check out at some later date.

The libraries' collections are definitely limited and the system isn't perfect, but it's a start, and getting better all the time! Good luck!

[FF2]

I don't have the link but some folks recommend the Philadelphia library which can be joined for a yearly fee.

[Catlady]

Free Library of Philadelphia has a decent and expanding selection of e-books; cost of a library card for nonresidents is only $15 a year.

[abookreader]

My Media Mall is one of the Overdrive systems I have access to. One thing I can tell you about them is that if you write an email to them expressing interest in a book - they are pretty receptive.

Note that some Publishers don't allow their books to be sold on Overdrive and not every book can be purchased.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by jerrywojo

My local library system here just outside Chicago provides digital downloads including eBooks. My Media Mall

I'm finding among the fiction I read,(mystery-Sci/Fi) the selections are slim to well nothing. There are titles I would be interested in but are always checked out.

They mainly have mobi format with a few epubs. Last I checked there were a total of 11 epubs available among all genres!

Interested to know how other libraries are doing with the availability of ebooks.

Is there a waiting list for the e-titles you wish to read? Are paper equivalents more available than their electronic counterparts?

I am also in a near Chicago Suburb. My suburb has reciprocal privileges with CPL, so I have a library card for CPL. I find the books at the CPL to be much more to my liking. They have current fiction and nonfiction bestsellers, and a bunch of cheap romance novels. My suburban library just went digital, and they have a much smaller range of books. A lot of gay erotic romances, which surprises me for the burbs. I have been on CPL the longest, and they are almost entirely epub. My suburban library still is buying some pdfs.

Yes, there is a waiting list for what I want to read. But I can always find something to read. The waiting lists are a lot longer since Christmas - I think a lot of Nooks were gifted this year.

My dear husband has agreed to get a CPL and suburban library card. Then I can put twice as many books on hold. Of course, I got him an ereader for Christmas, so he will probably be checking out his own!

[SensualPoet]

Toronto Public Library is also on the Overdrive system. Relative to a bookstore or the paper library itself, the pickings are "slim" and mostly DRM ePub (which is ideal for my Kobo). Having said that, there has been a serious uptick in choice in the past six months, and, in spite of long wait times for some titles, there's no shortage of literary, mystery or best-sellers for me to read. If you are looking for something specific, it's tough. I think of the selection like going to a bookstore display table: lots of interesting stuff worth sampling.

I assume -- although I certainly don't know -- that every title the library acquires is "forever" so overtime it will become a rich collection.

[Debi]

My local library just started lending ebooks this week. They are currently showing 81 epub and 6 pdfs in their collection. Needless to say that's a very limited selection, but I did manage to snag 3 books that I was on the waiting list for at other libraries. I'm hoping their collection will grow quickly. We'll have to wait and see.

[mountain_lion]

Library from my University of New Orleans offers a very decent amount of e-books. Thanks to that I now have my tablet with two applications. Sometimes I have been able to get text books for some of my courses.

[carld]

The selection at the Cleveland Public Library isn't a lot better. They have 20,000 titles but the majority of non-juvenile novels are romances. Even the Science Fiction and Fantasy collection is largely dominated by Paranormal Romance titles.

I should check back in and see if things have changed.

[SeaBookGuy]

We have 20K titles, too, but few romances (Seattle isn't that kind of audience). I'm thrilled that we get a lot of nonfiction, along with ... yes ... those paranormal titles as well (less-than-thrilling). I've been lucky so far at having no more than one or two folks ahead of me in the queue, but recently noticed I'm #7 of 7 for one book!

[pholy]

There have been some other threads about this. Here is the first I found; I think 'library collection' wasn't a good search term.

[Joykins]

The DC library has a large selection; sometimes the actual titles they choose seem strange to me, but whatever. There is usually a wait for the more recent and popular books. The wait isn't normally too long. If you want to read library ebooks, you have to be willing to wait. Often you can get a popular book quicker by walking into a library and checking it out--BUT--and I just say this as an example of course, someone at DC overdrive library bought like a zillion Harlequin romances in PDF, and there are none at all of these at my IRL library branch, so I've been working my way through this backlist I think more recently epub titles are the favored format showing up but most of their older titles are in PDF and mobi.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Joykins

The DC library has a large selection; sometimes the actual titles they choose seem strange to me, but whatever. There is usually a wait for the more recent and popular books. The wait isn't normally too long. If you want to read library ebooks, you have to be willing to wait. Often you can get a popular book quicker by walking into a library and checking it out--BUT--and I just say this as an example of course, someone at DC overdrive library bought like a zillion Harlequin romances in PDF, and there are none at all of these at my IRL library branch, so I've been working my way through this backlist I think more recently epub titles are the favored format showing up but most of their older titles are in PDF and mobi.

The DC library has not added any new eBooks in months and months. It's pathetic.