Have your kids lost their motivation to read this summer? Would they prefer life in front of a screen? Want to try something new and, perhaps, get them excited about reading again? Currently, front and center on our Kids’ Space, you will see this link.
When you click on that link, you will be directed to the library’s collection of ebooks for kids. From here, your child can scan through a lot of choices, some familiar and some new. She can choose one book she wants to read or even fill her account with up to ten books. All she has to do is hover the mouse over a book that looks interesting. The image of the book will then change to ask her if she wants to borrow the book or sample it. If your child has not logged in a library card, she will be asked for her card info before she can read a book. After she does that once, she will not be asked again. If you are using a home computer, you can even ask the computer to remember this info so she won’t have to re-type the library card every day.
Once logged in, Overdrive (the ebook program) will automatically add all ebooks she chooses to borrow to her account. She can check which books are in her account by simply clicking the word “account” at the top, slight right of the page (hint: there is a little icon of a green person above it). This is where all her ebooks will be stored for up to 21 days, which is the same amount of time customers can keep a paper book as well. If she chooses an audiobook (voice only, no words on the screen), the checkout period is automatically set at 7 days. You can switch this to 14 or 21 days if you choose to, though.
The great thing about books on Overdrive is that they are automatically checked back in after their time is up. There is no having to remember to return them. They will just automatically delete from your account and there are never any late fees. Our ebooks are similar to our paper books in that we have a limited amount of copies of each one. If another child has an ebook checked out at the moment, your child will have to be added to the wait list for that book. Instead of giving the choice of “borrow” when you hover over the book, it will say “place a hold” if the book is not actually available at the moment.
Hopefully, this info has given you enough to go give our ebooks a try. Play around, see what choices are available. I bet your child will be pleasantly surprised at many of the books she will find on there. (FYI: Many of the books found on Overdrive can be found in AR as well for those customers of ours whose children use Accelerated Reader at school.)
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