Library’s E-Reader Program Takes Off

When the set aside nearly $5,000 earlier this year for the purchase of e-readers and pre-loaded content for them, it did so in the hope that library users were ready to swap paper for touch screens.

If there was any doubt about that transition, it was answered quickly this week, as the five Nook Color e-readers made available for borrowing by the library were taken out within one hour. The library has six Nooks, one of which is currently being used to train staff.

“People seem to be really excited about it,” said reference librarian Gail Jones, who oversees the e-reader program. “It gives people an opportunity to try something new to explore and enjoy information in a new way.”

The Nooks are loaded with 53 book titles, both fiction and non-fiction and primarily bestsellers. The titles include Jaycee Dugard’s A Stolen Life: A Memoir, Albert Brooks’ 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and Bloodmoney by David Ignatius.

The e-readers also include three magazines: The New Yorker, Saveur and Garden Design, as well as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Jones said the e-readers are being loaded with four new books per month for the next year, with the e-readers eventually containing approximately 125 titles.

The e-readers are available to be checked out for one week for 94941 residents who are library members in good-standing (meaning no outstanding fines).

“E-readers and e-books are changing the way that people want to view and access information,” Jones said. “And this program is an exciting opportunity for us to help them take advantage of this new form of doing that.”