Books A-Go-Go -- Mobile Digital Libraries

OK, this is pretty cool -- and FREE! Our county library has digital book downloads for all sorts of media players, including iPods, phones, BlackBerry and other MP3 players. I can even play it on my computer. You just have to download the software -my library uses the OverDrive Media Console. I was able to transfer it directly into my iPod without going through iTunes. (I'm going to see if I can put it on my iPod Touch, too.) And it was free -money-wise and virus-wise. You "check out" the book for two weeks. Since this is my first time trying it, I have no idea what happens after two weeks - does it delete itself? Can I "renew"? I'll keep you posted. Sure beats having to pay for retail audio downloads. There were lots of titles available -- I was able to grab "The Painted Veil"

OK, a few more things I've just learned -- 1) Haven't tried this yet, but forewarned is forearmed...to delete your "book" you need to connect your iPod into iTunes using the manually managing option. 2) Downloading the book into the iPod took a long time. I thought it was just my computer connection. OverDrive divides the book into Parts. Each Part took about 7-8 minutes, about 48 minutes total for this particular book, which is a little over seven hours long. Once you have downloaded the book into OverDrive, you can just download one part or as many parts you want at a time. I didn't know that and my little iPod got HOT! I had to plug in my power cord as the battery drained to almost 4% before it finished. And that was with a charged battery.

I'll keep you posted with other hints, tips and suggestions as I go along. I'm the type of "click this-oh s**t!, click that-Whew! electronic gadget girl!