Join us at the James Kennedy Public Library, March 4-10, for Read an eBook Week!  This is a week to celebrate the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically.

Based on what our patrons have been telling us, eBook readers were one of the more popular gifts this past holiday season.  So, what makes eBooks and eReaders so great?  Here are some of the many advantages to reading on an eReader:  an eReader can hold hundreds of books on one device; you can adjust the font size of any book to be smaller or larger depending on what you need; eBooks are often less expensive to purchase than a physical book and there are tens of thousands of eBooks available many of which are current titles;  eBooks can be borrowed from the library or purchased from a seller; no more heavy, hard cover books to lug around; eBooks can be accessed anytime, day or night, from anywhere that you have a computer and an internet or WiFi connection; color eReaders are backlit so you don’t need a light on to read in bed; color eReaders and tablets can now support magazine subscriptions and you can now read newspapers on many eReaders.

So where did eBooks come from?  Originally, early eBooks were written in specialty areas, intended to be documents that only small groups might share.  Soon, numerous eBook formats emerged and proliferated.  Then multiple readers in specific formats emerged, but most supported only one type of eBook format which originally kept eBooks from becoming a mainstream product.

eBooks continued to gain in underground markets and many eBook publishers began distributing books that were in the public domain, or that were simply old and hard-to-find. At the same time, authors with books that were not accepted by their publisher began to strike out on their own, offering the books on-line so they could be seen by others. Websites devoted to eBooks also began spreading the word to the public.

Libraries began to pay attention to eBooks in 1998 when NetLibrary, a Colorado-based firm began to provide content.  The major publishing companies finally took notice of the eBook movement around 2001.  Then Oprah got involved - announcing that Amazon's Kindle eBook reader was her favorite gadget - and eBooks met popular culture.  Today, eBooks and eReaders are common and it’s not unusual to see people reading eBooks on laptops, on handheld computers at the coffee shop, or on cellphones during their commute. Today consumers can find more of the kind of literature they want to read, from best-sellers by established authors, to cutting-edge material by daring new authors, and everything in-between.  (most of this content provided by http://www.ebookweek.com).

So how do you get eBooks?  There are several ways to get eBooks  - you can find free ones, buy them, or borrow them from your local library.  The James Kennedy Public Library is a member of the North Eastern Iowa Bridge to Online Resource Sharing (NEIBORS), a consortium of libraries that provides eBooks and downloadable audiobooks books to their patrons. Anyone with a JKPL library card can use this service. To get started, just go to www.neibors.lib.overdrive.com or follow the link from the library’s website on the Books & Reading tab at www.dyersville.lib.ia.us.   The library also has printed instructions for how to borrow eBooks on a Kindle, Sony, Nook, or iPad and we’ll be happy to provide you a copy.

Here at the James Kennedy Public Library we see the usage of eBooks increasing every month. During Read an eBook Week it is our goal for the patrons to check out 50 eBooks.  You can help us achieve that goal by borrowing an eBook from us.  If you don’t know how, just ask, we’ll be happy to show you!  There will be a chart posted on the bulletin board near the library front doors showing how many eBooks we are checking out.  Help us make those numbers grow!  On the same bulletin board will be a place where you can share the title of your favorite eBook.  Come tell us what your favorite eBook is and see what others have written down.  Maybe you’ll get an idea for what eBook to read next.

The library will also be hosting the following events during Read an eBook Week.

Monday, March 5: eBook and eReader Overview @ 6:30 pm. Join us for this class which will cover the basics of what an eBook is, what an eReader is, along with differences between the varying types of eReaders available. The library will have several eReaders on hand so that you can see how they work. Registration is requested.

Thursday, March 8: eReader Petting Zoo from 1:00 - 8:00 pm: Stop by and learn about the library's four eReaders - Nook, Nook Color, Kindle, and Sony. You're welcome to pick them up and try them out out and see how a few of the different eReaders work.  Thanks to the generosity of the JKPL Friends of the Library for purchasing the eReaders for the library.

Friday, March 9: eReader Open House from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm: Do you have questions about how to work your eReader or how to borrow library eBooks? Grab your device and stop by the library anytime today and get some help using your eReader.

Watch for next week’s article to learn more about eBooks and why you might not be able to find your favorite author in the library’s eBook collection.