Lane Memorial Library e-book services

The library has a collection of Nook and Kindles preloaded with a growing number of popular titles. If you have always wanted to try one of these ereaders now is your chance. A listing of the available devices with lists of the titles they contain is available in our library catalog . You can also browse a listing of all the titles we have available in ebook format. Some of these titles are available for online download while others are on devices that you borrow from the library.

Nearly 150 New Hampshire public libraries, including the Lane Memorial Library, have joined in a consortium to offer ebook and digital audiobook titles through the popular service known as Overdrive. The New Hampshire Downloadable Books Consortium has made thousands of titles available, for all ages and in all genres. Use the links at right to go directly to your favorite genre. They also have a growing list of always-available public domain ebooks from Project Gutenberg .

With your library card you have full access to this growing collection of ebooks. After setting up an account you can download ebooks to read on your computer (PC or Mac), or to transfer to your ereader. (There are many types of devices that are compatible with this service , including the Kindle, Nook and many more. This e-library is open 24/7, and with your barcode number and an email account, you can place a hold on any ebook that is currently checked out.

To enjoy ebooks on your PC or Mac, and to transfer them to your portable device, you will need the OverDrive® Media Console™ and Adobe® Digital Editions . Each is a free program that you download and install on your computer, and you can also find the links to them on the New Hampshire Downloadable Books (NHDB) website, along with detailed Help pages to get you started.

If you've never used the service before you may find it a bit daunting at first. But don't worry, OverDrive and your New Hampshire public libraries have developed several aids to get you started. Click the MyHelp icon at left or the one in the left-hand column of the NHDB website, you will find a link to MyHelp! Just tell it what you want to do (read ebooks) and tell it what kind of device you want to use, and it will take you to step-by-step instructions for your device.

There is also a Quick Start Guide , which gives you an overview of the entire procedure for both ebooks and digital audiobooks, along with links to more detailed instructions.

Thanks to the coordination of the New Hampshire State Library, New Hampshire public librarians are collaborating on another instruction aid that is tailored just for our patrons. NH Downloadable Books , the official blog of the NH Downloadable Books Service, features slideshows to help you get started, lists of the latest ebook purchases, personal reviews of various portable devices, and a forum for you to ask your downloadable ebook questions and get a quick reply. And of course, we’re always here to help you in person, too. Just call or come in today, and bring your new gadget with you!

Note about the confidentiality of your borrowing records in regards to downloadable ebooks:

Downloading electronic content from the NH Downloadable Books Consortium (NHDB) may compromise user confidentiality expectations as outlined in RSA 201-D:11 Library User Records; Confidentiality .

Functionality of the NHDB service is provided by Overdrive (www.overdrive.com) in agreement with many partnering vendors to provide down-loadable content to a wide variety of devices and platforms. By creating accounts with third party vendors (e.g. Amazon or Adobe) to download these materials, you may be allowing the vendors to store data about your reading/listening habits and download history via the Overdrive service.

By continuing e-content downloads via NHDB, you acknowledge acceptance of both the Overdrive terms of use as well as the possible compromise of the confidentiality of the library records generated by your e-content downloads.

Free eBook Websites

There are dozens of sites on the Internet where you can download free ebooks. Many are older books that are now in the public domain, but there are other sites as well that offer new books, although you won't find popular new titles for free. Some of the better ones are:

• Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.
• Google Books Books in the public domain are available in "full view" and free for download. For in-print books, Google limits the number of viewable pages but much of the content is still readable online. Older issues of popular magazines are also available here.
• The Internet Archive The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.
• Bartelby Excellent source for classic texts.
• Just Free Books A search engine that allows you to search more than 700 free book websites.
• Scribd Sometimes called the Youtube for documents. Millions of documents and books uploaded by people the world over.