Week #9 Thing #22

Wow!  I was so excited to see that there are sites where you can get ebooks and audiobooks for FREE!  I spent a lot of time navigating throught the different websites to see what was available - it's like having your own library right in your home!

In the library where I work, we just set up a listening station where students can listen to a story while looking at the book.  I think this is a great way to encourage beginning readers!  We don't have any ebooks though, and we don't have any audio books to check out.  I think a major reason why we do not is because of money.  I was surprised that I have never heard about these sites before that offer free books.  I only started listening to audiobooks last year.  My family and I took out a couple of books for our annual seven hour trip to Cape Cod.  I found it very hard to concentrate in listening to it with four other people, and I found it nearly impossible to drive and listen at the same time.  I did enjoy listening to a story I had already read - it made concentrating a lot easier.  We listened to Anne of Green Gables.  I also had to listen to some audiobooks for a previous class.  I did find those enjoyable while sitting by the pool on a hot summer's day.  I definitely see the benefits of ebooks and audiobooks and think they would be a great asset to any library.

I checked out the the World Ebook Fair site.  It didn't seem very user friendly, but I think if you browse the site enough you would become more familiar with what is available.  I liked looking at the different collections to get a better idea of the types of books the site offers.  I also checked out The Ultimate Guide - the best places to get free books.  You could spend hours looking through all these sites!  They provide great classic books that can be downloaded in a variety of formats.  I chose to download Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen from ManyBooks.  I found that particular site very user friendly.  It had popular picks, pictures, categories and recommendations.

The one thing I am not sure about with these free books is if a library could download them, or are they for personal use only?  With monetary resources on the decline, that is something libraries should check into.