As we approach the end of 2017, St. Lawrence County Libraries are looking to increase eBook circulation as part of the Overdrive Digital Dash incentive program. If we can reach our check out goal of 59,670 books by the end of the year, we are eligible to win Overdrive content credit – which means free eBooks for our community!
Overdrive is a service that allows library users to download and read digital books and audiobooks to a computer, tablet, eReader, or smartphone. EMedia may be borrowed for free with your library card and downloaded to your device from the internet.
The Digital Dash is a checkout challenge issued by Overdrive to the North Country Library System (NCLS), which includes libraries in St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Oswego, and Lewis counties. So far in 2017, NCLS library users have checked out 49,444 eBooks. For the contest, users need to check out an additional 10,226 books by the end of the year. To reach that goal, our readers need to boost the average monthly checkouts by about 200 items – a very attainable goal for the combined sixty-five libraries in our system.
There are eighteen prizes up for grabs, to be drawn randomly from all library systems that subscribe to Overdrive content. Prizes range from a $500 content credit up to a $5,000 content credit. If we reach 100% of our goal, NCLS will be entered into the random prize drawing in January 2018.
If you’re already taking advantage of library eBooks, please help us reach our goal by checking out and reading an extra book or two! If digital books are new to you, please give them a try. For phones and tablets, you can choose either the older Overdrive app or the newer Libby app, both of which are available for download at no charge from the various mobile app stores including Google Play and iTunes. EBooks may also be downloaded for free from our digital catalog directly to Kindle devices.
In related news, Overdrive recently set up a partnership with Google to help facilitate searching for and locating digital books. Now, if you search for a book title in Google, the Knowledge Panel on the right side of the screen will show not only a summary of the book and retail options for making a purchase, but information about your local library and a link to the Overdrive catalog entry for that book title. Once you click through to the Overdrive catalog, you can read a sample of the eBook, check out the item, or place it on hold. If NCLS doesn’t own a downloadable copy, you won’t see a link in the search results, but there’s still a good chance a printed book or audio CD is available via our regular catalog.
If you need help obtaining a library card, setting up your eReader, or downloading books to Overdrive or Libby, stop by your local public library and ask for assistance. Our entire catalog is searchable online at http://www.ncls.org or via the free NCLS mobile app. Or, visit the library and check out the new arrivals on our shelves!