I received a NOOK for Mother’s Day. The surprising thing about this is that I am a Librarian; even more surprising is that I requested one. I had debated getting an e-reader for some time, feeling somehow that I was betraying not only my profession but the very books that I know and love. I finally gave in for a number of reasons. The major one being that our library has a collection of free e-books. The WTPL belongs to a group project called ListenNJNW which is a comprehensive collection of downloadable audio and e-books. This collection was started several years ago with downloadable audio books, but due to the popularity of e-books the majority of the recent purchases are in the EPUB format which is compatible with a number of eBook Readers and Portable Devices. The NOOK, Sony eReader, Pandigital Novel, IPad, IPhone, IPod touch, Droid and BlackBerry devices as well as number of tablets (check ListenNJNW.com for a complete list) are included.
Unfortunately the demand for e-books has far exceeded the amount of available copies; due to licensing only one borrower can have an e-book “checked out” at a time. As a result several libraries, including ours have started their own e-book collection which adds additional copies of popular titles that are available only to residents of Washington Township. The list of our e-book collection and the link to ListenNJNW are available on the WTPL website.
I couldn’t wait to set up my Nook and start downloading titles; it was easy, fast and convenient. It’s too soon to tell whether I love it, but my kids certainly do!
