As you may have heard, access to our current source for digital ebooks and audiobooks – Audiobooks, Music and More - will end December 5, 2011 when the contract with OverDrive ends.
The State Library of Kansas will continue to provide access to digital audiobooks through Recorded Books, starting November 2011 and plans to provide ebooks through 3M Cloud Library starting in January 2012. Exact dates are not known. More information about the new service, branded as “Kansas EZ Library,” is available at the State Library’s site: www.kslib.info/digitalbooks/
In an open letter to Kansas Librarians, State Librarian Jo Budler shared her concerns about the timing of this transition to new vendors:
I realize this is not an optimum schedule because it will result in a gap between the time the contract with OverDrive ends on Dec. 5, and the date that all econtent will be available to Kansas residents. In order to minimize this disruption in service and to assist you in answering patrons’ questions, please find:
- a list of downloadable audiobook and ebook alternative services, available at no charge, at www.kslib.info/digitalbooks/
- a list of frequently asked questions that your staff can use to respond to patrons
Librarians and patrons can find this information online at www.kslib.info/digitalbooks/.
You may want to direct your patrons to these alternate sources for digital content now — there is now waiting because the books are always available! We took advantage of that fact and added 400 records to the NExpress catalog from Project Gutenberg, a collection of 36,000 free ebooks such as Pride and Prejudice and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We used records from the Colorado Library Consortium‘s “e-Discover the Classics” project – and you can, too.
Also, we will have the Tech Toy Box at NEST and can demonstrate eReaders and show you how to download materials from the current system.
