Sanibel Public Library is on a mission: Get more people to try digital reading! While the Library has offered eBooks, digital audiobooks, and streaming video to the community via OverDrive and Hoopla for many years, people are still surprised to learn their library card gives them access to thousands of digital titles.
Throughout the rest of 2017, the Library is participating in OverDrive’s “Digital Dash” contest. If patrons borrow 19,689 digital checkouts by the end of the year, Sanibel Public Library will be eligible to win additional funds to buy more eBooks and audiobooks for the OverDrive collection.
Margaret Mohundro, the Library’s Executive Director, said, “We are at 85% of the goal. We have been building the eShelf since 2010, and this incentive from OverDrive could add leverage to our efforts to add more new titles and more copies of popular titles.” The eShelf usage has grown by 20 percent every year, and more than 43,000 eBooks, (including 9,000 audiobooks) have been checked out from the Library in the past six years.
The Library’s digital books are free for anyone with a valid library card. Users can borrow bestsellers and classic eBooks and audiobooks to enjoy on smart phones, tablets, Kindles and other eReaders, MP3 players, and computers. There are never late fees with eBooks, as they return automatically at the end of the two week lending period.
Readers can access the library’s OverDrive collection 24/7 by visiting www.sanlib.org or by downloading the Libby app from their device’s app store.
The eShelf services are offered to Sanibel Public Library cardholders at no extra charge. Patrons who need technical assistance with using their own personal devices to download library material should call to make an appointment with staff.
Major funding for new technology is provided by the Sanibel Public Library Foundation and its generous donors. For more information about the Foundation or to make a donation, call the Library at (239) 472-2483 or visit online at www.sanlib.org.