Delco Libraries Offer Free E-books

For those who love the library and e-book readers can now enjoy the marriage of these literary entities.

On , the Haverford Township Free Library is offering a free demonstration of how owners of e-book readers, such as the , can download free books from any Delaware County library.

Jessica Holton, a reference librarian at the , explained to Patch a little more about the e-book program.

“The Delaware County Library System, of which HTFL is a member, pays for a subscription to the e-book distributor OverDrive. Overdrive provides both downloadable audiobooks (in mp3 and wma formats) and e-books (in Kindle, Adobe ePub and Adobe PDF formats),” Holton wrote in an email to Patch.

“You can browse our downloadable offerings (by clicking here) or you can go to the DCLS homepage and click on the 'Download e-books and audiobooks' icon at the top of the page,” she continued.

She explained that downloading an e-book is very similar to online shopping, where a person can place items in a shopping cart and then check them out.

Some of the requirements are that a person must have a current Delaware County Library card and must be a resident of the county, Holton stated.

While a person can only check out up to seven e-books at a time, the service is free and there are no late fees, explained Holton.

“Books ‘magically expire’ at the end of their loan period, so users don’t have to worry about returning on time,” she confirmed.

Holton pointed out that loaning e-books out to the public is something that her library has been doing for a couple of years now and that libraries in general began circulating e-books as soon as libraries were able to obtain borrower’s rights from the books’ publishers.

And avid readers have been asking e-books, Holton wrote.

“There has been more demand over time as e-readers and mobile devices become more popular,” she stated. “The Haverford Township Free Library currently leads the county in e-book and audiobook downloads through Overdrive.”

To view all the Overdrive supported e-readers and mobile devices, please click this link.