New Ebooks and Digital Media Service Announced

For the past 2 years an Association of Public Library Managers (APLM) working group has been brokering a nationwide deal to offer ebooks and other digital media in public libraries. The need for public libraries to move with technology to best meet the changing reading and information needs of their communities has been clearly seen during that period, with an explosion in the availability and popularity of ebooks.

By joining together though APLM, the libraries have made significant savings in setting up the technical infrastructure required to integrate the lending system into their websites and will be able to offer a much wider range of material to their communities than by doing so on a go-it-alone basis. This project is a great example of resource-sharing by libraries to maximise value for Councils and to make this cutting-edge service available to as many New Zealanders as possible.

Implementation of this project is now underway at around 40 library systems across the country through 3 regional-based groupings (Upper North Island, Lower North Island and South Island). The regional consortia and participating libraries can be viewed here.  

The service will be launched in the next two months using OverDrive – the same service currently used by Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington public libraries and extensively elsewhere in the world. Initial collection building will focus on both ebooks and digital audio books, but there is opportunity to expand into digital video and music content in the future as licensing permits as well. Downloads will be free to participating library members, in line with all other libraries using OverDrive. The OverDrive platform allows library customers to borrow audiobooks and ebooks for a limited time for use on their own devices.

More detail will be added closer to the launch date of the project. In the meantime, to learn more about what OverDrive offers and how the digital lending process works visit:

Auckland Libraries:

http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/DigitalLibrary/resourcepages/Downloadable-media.aspx

Wellington City Libraries;

http://wcl.lib.overdrive.com/8E2312B7-BCB7-45F1-8C38-E083ED1DFB92/10/458/en/Default.htm

 Christchurch City Libraries:

http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Databases/Overdrive/About/ 

 OverDrive:

http://www.overdrive.com/