The next eBookWorm discussion will be held on
Thursday, February 19, 2004 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Central Time. eBookWorm is sponsored by the
Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Tom Peters of TAP
Information Services is the show host.
Cynthia Orr will be the featured guest. Ms. Orr is
Collection Manager for the Cleveland Public Library
where the 2003 annual budget for library materials was
over $10 million. Cindy has years of experience in the
areas of collection development, public service and
management. She was a co-founder of the web-based free
Readers Advisory resource called BookBrowser, which
was sold to Barnes & Noble.com in 2003.
April 7, 2003, marked the debut of another "first" for
the Cleveland Public Library, along with the 26 other
member libraries in the CLEVNET Consortium. On that
Monday morning in April, the library rolled out its
new eBook lending program. The program is the first
of its kind in the library world.
Satisfied patrons have let us know that they like the
ability to carry eBooks along with them while
traveling with their laptop or PDA, and find that it
is convenient to be able to check out a book without
physically visiting the library. In the first week of
the service, more than 300 different patrons checked
out more than 500 titles and placed another 200 titles
on reserve. Some of the most popular books in the
collection include fiction by Michael Crichton, Tim
LaHaye, Barbara Delinsky, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard
and Tony Hillerman. The collection ranges from
children's books, Cliff's Notes, business and computer
titles, cookbooks and bestsellers.
The CLEVNET Digital Library Connection offers titles
for both Adobe Reader and Palm Reader, with MobiPocket
coming soon. No special hardware is needed to enjoy an
eBook. Free software is available and requires a
one-time download. To learn more about these formats
or to download the reader software, please click on
eBooks at the CPL web site: www.cpl.org.
Cindy Orr has spoken about book related topics at
conferences and workshops of many different
organizations, including the Ohio Library Council, the
Public Library Association, the American Library
Association, and BookExpo America. She teaches a
class on Readers' Advisory Services for Kent State
University's Graduate School of Library and
Information Science. She was on the committee
responsible for launching the first 24-hour-a-day
7-day-a-week live readers' advisory service on the
Web, and helped launch an ebook project for public
library patrons--the first such library service to
make it possible to check out eBooks and read them
offline on multiple platforms and devices.
To participate, go to
http://www.talkingcommunities.com/entrance.pl?31122688174,
enter your name, no password is necessary, click
enter, a small software applet will download on your
computer and allow you to enter the room. You do not
need a microphone but you do need an Internet
connection, sound card and speakers to participate. If
you have trouble or have questions, please contact Tom
Peters at tapinformation@yahoo.com or
lbell927@yahoo.com
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