Montana Library2Go is easily accessible through the Montana Public Library online catalog and is fairly self-explanatory. The Overdrive software has to be downloaded onto the computer that you are using before any books or audiobooks can be downloaded. Overdrive seems to work just fine on a PC, but I had a really hard time getting it to work on my Mac. I downloaded the app on to my iPad, and while it downloaded a Kindle version of a book just fine, I couldn’t download any of the audiobooks that stated they were compatible with iPods. In the past I’ve had to download audio books to the school PC, transfer it to iTunes, and then load it on to my iPod. It turned into quite the laborious process, and I think that I will probably have to do the same thing with my iPad if I want to have audio books available there as well.
I first started using Montana Library2Go last year, and it seemed that most of the books I was interested in were available, or only had a short waiting period. This week when I went in to investigate, nearly everything besides Boxcar Children had 2 to 6 holds pending!
Because of the growing popularity of audio books and e-readers, we have considered purchasing e-readers for our library, and we’ve also discussed figuring out a way to work with the Missoula Public Library to make it easier for students to access the MPL materials. Earlier this year we started a dialogue with the public library, suggesting that a librarian come to our school to talk with students and get them signed up for a library card. For whatever reason, the public library seems hesitant to engage with us in that way, and we have not moved forward with the effort. Several students would make good use of the e-books and audio books but they will never make it to the public library to sign up for a card.
We are still researching e-readers in regards to best purchases, lending policies, etc. I believe the librarians had it narrowed down to Kindles as our top choice, but as the lending policies are still being written by the companies themselves, there’s a lot of grey area regarding the ethical and legal use of electronic materials. We still don’t really know what the cost or availability would be in the long run, since we don’t know how many copies we need to purchase of each book, and how many devices can have the same book at the same time. We currently lend iPods with iTunes audio books pre-loaded on them, but every student has to sign a loan agreement promising to pay for lost materials, and the iPods only check out for two weeks.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. To me, the major hurdle of using MT2go is downloading overdrive. Sometimes it works like a charm and sometimes it's extremely frustrating and time-consuming. Once that piece of software is downloaded, things seem to work nicely.
ReplyDeleteMissoula public library goes to the farmer's market to sign people up for library cards, so I didn't know what the hesitation would be about going to a school. I'd try again -- maybe it was just a really busy time or something.
You make a good point about the uncertainty of how e-readers are going to be used in libraries. There are a lot of policies and laws and practices that have yet to be addressed. At this point, I'd be comfortable buying 5 for a library, but not 50.
I agree with what both of you have said about proceeding slowly and cautiously with ebook readers in the library. We have five that we loan out, loaded with popular titles, but the only reason we're doing so is because the school already owned the Kindles and they weren't being used much in the classroom. I can't see spending that much of my budget on the devices themselves, especially when more and more students have portable devices that can read ebooks. I can see the logic in Doug Johnson's article we read, in that libraries can get students access to the electronic materials rather than providing the devices themselves (which are so easily damaged...we've already had to replace 2/5 due to screen damage).
ReplyDeleteI agree with your frustrations of downloading. It took me several tries and I had to manually go in and do some changes in order to get it to work. This is very frustrating and can cause people to not continue working on the download. I would have quit if I hadn't had to do it for my assignment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the overwhelming uncertainty of ereaders. Policies, grey areas, who is responsible for damage. All this and more can be very confusing and are hurdles that must be overcame. I do like Doug Johnson's article, at some point there will be very few people who do not have portable devices that can be used for ebooks.