Borrowing public library book on a kobo touch

[Carolineapink]

Hi all,
Got a kobo touch last week for my birthday. I've trying to set it up, so I can borrow books from the public library. Can Idownload books using a wireless network. I haven't got a computer. I have got an pad 2. Please can someone help me.

[Witty Username]

Which country do you live in?

[Mrs_Often]

You can download DRM free books directly from the Touch's browser. To get to the browser (which is a beta part of the Touch), you go to Settings (three bars icon, top right of the home screen), then "Extras." Browser is at the bottom I think.

Free books are mostly public domain books. You can get them from (for instance):
http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain
http://www.gutenberg.org

Be sure to type the http://www. into the Touch's browser, otherwise it won't work.

Or from the http://www.kobobooks.com/free_ebooks – You don't need your Touch's browser for this, you can use the "Store" from the home screen and browse by free books category.

Unfortunately, you cannot download books that are protected (library books) directly onto the Touch. You will need a computer for that. The way it works is, you download a file instead of the book, and this file tells the Adobe software (on the computer) from where to download the actual book and that you have a license to view the book. The Kobo Touch is not able to process these files.

[PeterT]

While this guide is from the Toronto Public Library, the same steps should hold for any library.

[Carolineapink]

I live in Wales. It is Wales elibrary website that I use.

[Lily7]

If you don't have access to a computer you may need to call the library from which you are borrowing and ask them if there is an alternative way. I've borrowed books from a lot of libraries and you need ADE and a computer in order to load DRM-protected ones. :-\

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Lily7

If you don't have access to a computer you may need to call the library from which you are borrowing and ask them if there is an alternative way. I've borrowed books from a lot of libraries and you need ADE and a computer in order to load DRM-protected ones. :-\

Thats actually a great suggestion. It might not go very far for many reasons but it certainly wont hurt to ask after all whats the worst they would say is no? and then your no worse off then you were before. Another option may be to ask a friend for assistance.


Regards

Jack

[mXb]

Originally Posted by Carolineapink

I live in Wales. It is Wales elibrary website that I use.

Isn't ADE compatible with iPads ?

Try checking out the Help page at your local digi-library. It will tell you about Adobe Digital Editions, how to download and set it up, and then how to download the library ebooks to it. It will probable have video's showing you how to do it.

Also Adode's website has lots of info. Also they have sample books to download once you have set things up so you can test that it works ok before downloading a library book or buying one from an online store.

It seems a complicated procedure but once everything is set up it is quite simple to download a library book.

[PeterT]

Assuming that this is the website, then their FAQ at https://wales.libraryebooks.co.uk/si...ks/faq_out.asp has instructions on downloading directly to an iPad.

Can I download directly to my Apple iPhone/iPad?
Although we would always recommend that you download to a PC or MAC before transfering your title to your reader, we DO however allow you to download directly to your iPhone or iPad.

In order to successfully download to your Apple device you must have the Bluefire Reader app installed. Once installed and configured with your Adobe ID you can start to download your titles by browsing this site from your Apple device.

Unfortunately, you will not be able to download the books to a Kobo without the use of either a PC or Mac.

[Mrs_Often]

Perhaps you could use one of the PCs at the library...?

[Lily7]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Perhaps you could use one of the PCs at the library...?

At my library you can't use programs that require personal information like ADE. Might be different outside of US hopefully.

Maybe could also use a friend's computer? Or neighbor's?

[soulfuldog]

I doubt you'll be able to use the PCs in the library for the reason Lily7 has just posted. You really need to have access to a friend or a neighbours computer as it involves installing the ADE software and registering your details.

Unfortunately, the only e-reader that allows direct download of library books in the UK is the Sony PRST1/T2.

[danicca]

I believe once you register ipad with adobe id, you can download books to ipad and then copy books to kobo. But.
kobo also has to be registered with same adobe id,which has to be done via pc. (which really annoyed me: it has wifi so why it can't just ask for id and password?)On the plus side, you should've to do this only once, and you can remove software afterward(in case you're borrowing computer).

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Carolineapink

Hi all,
Got a kobo touch last week for my birthday. I've trying to set it up, so I can borrow books from the public library. Can Idownload books using a wireless network. I haven't got a computer. I have got an pad 2. Please can someone help me.

Can you tell me what Library it is that you are trying to get the book from?

I'm going to take a guess it's one that is using Overdrive to provide the eBooks.
The reason for the guess is that when you click on the link to get the book on the iPad, it'll do various things, depending on what apps you have installed.

An app can advertise that it's able to open a certain type of file, for example, an ePub file. When you tap on a link of that type of file iOS will ask if you want to open it in that app. If no app for that filetype exists then Safari will usually report that cannot read that type of file.

Overdrive seems to have set things up so that their links will explicitly open in their own Overdrive app on iOS if it is installed. This is a little annoying if you want to open the file in an ePub reader other than Overdrive.

Even if that did not happen, you'd still need to get the file into an app that your Touch could access. I'm not sure if Touch supports dropbox (unofficially of course), if it did, then you could try and get the file in dropbox on the iPad, then access the same dropbox from the Touch and open the file.

As others have said, you could try accessing the link to the ePub file directly on the Touch using the browser, which is probably going to be the only way you can get the file without having a computer involved.