During previous economic downturns, publications have often done stories about saving money by borrowing books, music and movies from the library. This is true not only in recessions, but every time you want to save some money. Libraries aren’t just for research; they have plenty of entertaining material as well.
But of course, they suffered from a problem that many bookstores didn’t: if a book was popular, you’d have a hard time finding a copy. It’s the 21st century now, most things have been digitized, so a perfect copy of anything shouldn’t be hard to find.
Well, with actual books printed on paper, you might still have to wait to get a copy of a popular title, but we recently found that our local library system is partnered with a service that enables it to offer digital downloads to anybody with a library card.
What’s more, it looks like this service, called “Overdrive”, has partnered with many many libraries throughout the world. Search their site to see if your library is offering this sort of thing. And if necessary, pick up a library card. They’re not expensive, I promise.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a big fan of our local library. I’m sure like most library systems, you can search the database and place holds online. It’s rare that I purchase a book, unless I’ve skimmed through it at the library to make sure it’s worth the expense.
I haven’t heard of “Overdrive” before though, so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!
The library is socialism that you already pay for. You can get books, books on tape or CD, and movies, but they usually offer much more. They often have computers with high speed internet access. At my local library I can get Free (yes free) passes to the Aquarium, many museums and historical sites. In addition they frequently have singers, writers, and miscellaneous famous people as cultural opportunities (and usually free or very cheap).
Is this in New York or LA??? No my town has 16,000 people.
The library in the town where I vacation (pop. 2400) has many of the same things except on a smaller scale. So the library is more than just books for cheapo’s like me.
That’s a great idea that more Libraries or book stores even should do. One of the reasons I don’t get books from the library is because the book I want is never in, they only have a few copies. With this, I could just print out the book I want, I’d even pay to do that since it would be less than buying a hardcover book. Maybe that will be the next thing to happen. Print them out as e-books.
Our Library has a similar system, but newer books are not available. However, they do have many audio books available online, which is nice for a commute.
Good to know that libraries are getting a little more technological.
I think it’s great that they are starting to offer digital versions of books.
Many people don’t realize all of the entertainment opportunities available at their public library. I used to manage a branch in the 14th largest library system in the country. The central library was heavy on research and had most anything you could want (including more popular items), but the branches were real treasures. I’d say 90% of their usage was for popular entertainment. DVDs, CDs, popular book titles in print and traditional audio (as well as downloads available on-line). Usually there was a charge for DVD and audio, but it was much less than commercial outlets. But this will vary from system to system as all library system are subsidized differently.
I haven’t worked in a library in over 3 years, but many of these technologies have been in place for quite sometime – libraries just don’t have large marketing budgets to let their users know. In Memphis we were offering Overdrive audio 4 years ago. So if you know about them you may be one of few. Spread the word around – the more usage your library has the more gov’t funding it will receive.