The Palo Alto and Henry M. Gunn High School libraries will launch a new digital eBook library to the public this week.
On the website, http://pausd.lib.overdrive.com, students can check out novels, test prep, audiobooks and other literature with a school library card number. The collection is available on both PC and Mac computers; smartphones such as the iPhone; and tablet devices including iPad, Nook and Kindle, according to Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman. Palo Alto Partners in Education, an non-profit organization that fundraises for the Palo alto Unified School District, helped kickstart the new library with a grant of $11,000.
For someone as technologically challenged as myself (though I do have experience using iPads), the registration process was fairly simple. To create an online library account, all I had to do was log in with my library card number, available from Paly librarians. I then could browse the entire collection and “check out” my selections.
The process of actually retrieving the eBook was a bit more complicated. To read Kindle-formatted books, the user must create an Amazon account (thankfully, it’s free) and download their Amazon’s Kindle application from the iPad’s App Store. To read Adobe EPUB and PDF-formatted books the user must download the free Adobe Digital Editions software. To browse and check out from a mobile device, one must also download and register with the Overdrive Media Console app.
Though it was rather tedious to initially download all of the necessary applications, the process is much simpler for future visits.
The library has a wide array of books to choose from, each with a lending period of 14 days and no overdue fines. However, some Paly students might be disappointed to hear that test prep books are not in the correct formatting for iPads or iPhones. If a user checks the same book out twice, any notes or highlighting will remain in the text, which is an incredibly useful feature for those reading school books.
If the service catches on at Paly, it could be a big success. Having digital copies of books would allow students to take notes on core novels directly next to the text and would be convenient to tote to school and back.
84 books have been checked out since the initial launch of the site, according to Kellerman.
“I think it’s going to be really important to make sure that people … understand how to use it,” Kellerman said.
The library will host an Overdrive eBook mobile in late March where students can set up their devices to use the service.