OverDrive and Kindle, partners at last!

The wait is at last over, Carnegie-Stout patrons with Kindles can now borrow eBooks from OverDrive! If you're have any questions or run into any trouble, don't hesitate to stop by the library or give us a call at (563) 589-4225. We are also preparing a how to post with tips and tricks for using OverDrive with your Kindle, look for it tomorrow (Saturday)!

This means you can check out a copy of Alexandra Fuller's new autobiography Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness or The Warlock, latest in the Nicholas Flamel series!

There's hundreds of other great titles to chose from! Not sure where to start? Check out some of these great titles, or ask the Recommendations Desk for a suggestion. We have new releases, classic titles, romance, mystery, horror, and don't forget our downloadable audio books!

More Free Resources for Your eReader

If you enjoyed our original post about free eBooks for your eReader, even those pesky Kindles that don't yet work with Carnegie-Stout's popular OverDrive database, we have a couple of new resources for you!

391 Places for Free Books Online: This site should keep you busy for a while. The author has arranged his links by genre as well as a straight alphabetical listing. He's even included a few links for free downloadable audiobooks.

Books on the Knob: Each day the author of this blog links readers to free eBooks, sharply discounted eBooks, and other promotions. While there are links for most popular eReaders, the blog's author started out by directing people toward deals for the Kindle so it skews a bit in Amazon's direction.

And don't forget, the Dubuque County Library System also provides access to OverDrive for their library patrons through NEIBORS. If you have any questions, comments, or run into a technical problem, don't hesitate to contact Carnegie-Stout at (563) 589-4225, through this handy Contact Us form, or in person!

Palace of Mirrors

I got a Kindle for Mother’s Day! I wanted to buy an e-reader for Christmas, but didn’t want a Kindle because I couldn’t check out library books on it. Once Amazon announced they would be partnering with Overdrive to allow library users to check out books on a Kindle, my kids decided it would be the perfect Mother’s Day/birthday gift. Unfortunately, the Amazon Overdrive partnership won’t be happening until summer. In the meantime, I either had to purchase books from Amazon or find free ones to download. I am on the committee to help select the 2012-13 Iowa Teen Awards, so I finally broke down and spent the $5.99 to download Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix, one of the 40 books I need to finish reviewing this summer.

I have read many of Haddix’s series “Shadow Children” and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this title. It is much lighter than that series, but her writing style is still outstanding. This title is filled with humor and written for grades 5-9. It is the story of Cecelia, a princess who is in hiding as a peasant. Her parents (the king and queen) were killed just after she was born, so advisers whisked her away to a secret spot to wait for her turn to become the princess she always knew she was.

With her childhood friend, Harper, she travels to the palace to take her “rightful place.” A bit of intrigue, a bit of romance and some complications ensue. Ella, from Just Ella, also by Haddix, makes an appearance to help sort things out.

This new fairy tale is part of a growing trend of princess stories written for middle school girls, but stands out as one of the best, alongside Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine) and Princess Academy (Shannon Hale.)

Old Workhorses

Chances are you've already heard about librarians' dismayed reaction to publisher HarperCollins new eBook policies. HarperCollins points out that print books eventually wear out and need to be replaced, generating sales and income for authors, booksellers, and publishers. eBooks, on the other hand, never wear out and never need to be replaced. If a library only needs to buy a book once to have it forever, the publisher argues, the book industry will miss out on sales that it needs in order to afloat. HarperCollins' solution: henceforth all eBooks they sell to libraries will need to be repurchased once they've been checked out 26 times.

While HarperCollins is correct that library books wear out over time, librarians across the country have found a 26 check-out limit puzzling to say the least. Barring something like a coffee spill or an act of dog, any well-made book will soar past 26 check-outs without significant damage or wear.

With that in mind, we've put together a display of books that have been checked out more than 150 times. As you can see, they're not spring chickens but they're definitely still readable. Most surprisingly, they've all been checked out within the past 14 months (most more recently than that). Not surprisingly, Nicholas Sparks rules the roost. He's got two book in this display and another three that would be here if they weren't either checked out or being mended. Sparks also has the books that have reached the 150 milestone most quickly.

~Andrew, Adult Services

Free Resources for Your E-Reader

Don't forget, Carnegie Stout Public Library is holding a one-session class to introduce students to Overdrive, an online service accessible both in the library and from home. Overdrive allows library patrons to download free audio books, eBooks, and music. Downloaded media may be accessed on a home computer or portable electronic device. For more information or registration check out our website.

Unfortunately, if you have a Kindle, you will be unable to use the library’s collection of eBooks. Amazon has chosen a proprietary form of software and will not allow libraries to check out eBooks that work with their software. You may of course purchase e-books directly from Amazon. However, there are several places to download eBooks for free. Many of these sites have older titles that are copyright free and some are new titles by aspiring authors.

ARTICLES:
Check out these two articles which discuss Google books, currently the largest collection of digital books. There is also a lot of good information regarding the Kindle.

Laura Miller from Salon has an article discussing Google eBooks.

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/12/07/google_ebookstore/index.html

And check out this explanation of Google books by The Tattered Cover bookstore:

http://www.tatteredcover.com/img-srcfilestatteredcovere-books-customersjpg-vspace9-width473-height108

WEBSITE LISTS:
We have also put together a list of websites where you may download eBooks for free. Many of these sites can also be used for Nooks, Kobo and Sony Readers, as well as simply reading on your PC. There are several different types of formats available, such as: ePub, PDF, HTML, Mobipocket, and Txt. You will need to check to see if your device can read the particular format.

http://www.suite101.com/content/free-ebook-websites-a318293
This article lists several of the free sites.

http://ebook-store-review.toptenreviews.com/top-7-free-ebook-websites.html
Top Ten Reviews reviews seven free sites.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/
Hongkiat.com has a blog post listing the twenty best websites for free e-books. The blog also added another 16 extra listings. The post was updated about a year ago and a second set of websites can be found here.


INDIVIDUAL WEBSITES:
Here is a partial list of the sites where you can download free e-books, with an informational quote from each website.

http://www.gutenberg.org/
“Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000 free eBooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. “

http://www.free-e-books.net/
“Free-e-books.net is the Internet’s #1 online source for free eBook downloads, eBook resources and eBook authors.”

http://www.getfreee-books.com/
“Getfreee-books.com is a free e-books site where you can download free books totally free.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-e-books/379001668/
Claims to have thousands of free eBooks, but only about 100 or so are listed. Can be used on iPad, iPhone, Android, NOOK, and PC.

http://manybooks.net/
“There are more than 29,000 eBooks available here and they're all free!”

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
“Listing over 900,000 free books on the Web”

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-e-books/b/ref=sv_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&node=1286228011
Look on the left under Special Features/Free E-Book collections. “Free classics and out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books, as well as limited-time free promotional e-books available for Kindle.”

http://www.smashwords.com/
“Discover Great E-books from Indie authors and publishers.”

http://www.kobobooks.com/
299 titles in multiple formats.

http://www.archive.org/details/texts
“The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.”

http://books.google.com/e-books
“Read nearly 3 million free eBooks and hundreds of thousands of titles that are ready for purchase; you can read all of your favorite books using just about any device with an Internet connection. You can read Google eBooks on the Web, with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and supported eReaders.. You can't use your Kindle to read any eBooks you buy from Google.”

Dubuque History at Google Books

These two full-text books about Dubuque history are available online for free at Google Books:

Free Audiobook Downloads

Tired of waiting for library materials with a long list of holds? The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown is now available as a downloadable audio book on the Carnegie-Stout Overdrive site. You can listen to it on your computer, mp3 player or iPod. If a title is currently checked out, you can place a hold and be notified via email when it is available. Items in the collection can be checked out for seven days. Other new and upcoming titles include: Dreamfever by Karen Moning, U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo and Nutureshock by Po Bronson. The most popular titles overall for Dubuque listeners remain the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

Our growing collection now includes eBooks in either the new Adobe EPUB or standard Adobe PDF format as well as downloadable music, and video. Look for the Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf, a local Dubuque author. The eBook collection can be read on your PC, Mac or Sony Reader.

To check out materials from this collection, you just need a full service library card and Internet connection . Go to the E-Branch Library tab on our website at www.dubuque.lib.ia.us and click on the Download Audio Books and Music link to access the Overdrive collection. Use your library barcode number and PIN to log in and follow the instructions for getting started if you are a first time user. Some titles like the Soloist by Steve Lopez can be burned to CD; the icons by each title indicate format and options for viewing or listening. Check it out @your library!