Mineola Library Offers Online Digital Books

In an effort to keep up with growing technology, the Mineola Library announced an addition to its digital library available as of August 2, 2010. Thousands of audiobooks and eBooks from the Nassau Library collection are now accessible to Mineola library card members through the library's website.

"Libraries are constantly expanding their formats," library director Charles Sleefe said. "The Mineola Memorial Library subscribed to online databases five years ago."

Card holders will now be able to check out audiobooks and eBooks from the comfort of their home PC or Mac computer. The digital books download straight to the computer and can be placed on several portable devices or burned to CDs for convenient access.

Audiobooks are compatible with most MP3 players, including many cell phones and iPods, while eBooks can be downloaded to Sony Reader and Nooks, but are currently incompatible with Kindles and iPads. "It's still growing in terms of compatibility," said Sleefe of the site.

"This is expanding beyond the library walls for 24-hour service," Sleefe said, referring to digital books. "It's another option for people to use the library and have materials in different formats."

A maximum of five digital books are allowed to be checked out at any time; an audiobook may be checked out for seven days and an eBook for fourteen days. After that time, the digital books will automatically delete themselves from the computer.

"This is not replacing books, it's an addition to our library," Sleefe said, believing that this addition will increase library membership and circulation, especially during library card sign-up month which continues through the month of September. 

The digital books are available through the Mineola Memorial Library website at www.nassaulibrary.org/mineola.