Digital Bookmobile highlights free library downloads

“Free and public” is not a term typically associated with digital downloads. But the long-standing motto of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County holds true for any e-book or e-audiobook download that the library offers today. 

A “Digital Bookmobile” recently rolled into two branches – Loveland and Grosbeck – to educate Hamilton County residents about the libraries' growing collection of downloadable material. Filled with a gadget gallery of mobile devices, visitors learned download basics from Overdrive, a downloadable materials vendor sponsoring the new-age bookmobile. 

With a library card and an iPod, Android, NOOK, Sony Reader, Blackberry, WindowsPhone or other digital device, customers can freely access the library’s entire downloadable collection. Through the Ohio eBook Project, libraries around the state, including Cincinnati’s, have collectively purchased downloadable materials. So, when one participating library adds titles to its collection, customers from all OEP member libraries can borrow them.   

E-books are usually offered for two weeks at a time, but music, part of the Sony Entertainment Catalog and the library’s newest digital service, can be downloaded for life.  

“People often ask the question, ‘Are e-books going to put the library out of business?’” says Amy Banister, the library’s marketing and programming director. “But we haven’t found that at all.” 

In fact, circulation and usage is up dramatically this year, and last year’s total of 16.4 million items loaned or downloaded was the highest number the library has ever seen. “We’re seeing increased circulation in borrowing, an increase in visitors and searching on-line, and an increase in program attendance.” 

Cincinnati’s public library draws people with its ever-enlarging downloadable collection and then keeps them there to attend a program, visit an exhibit or even sit down with one of those old-fashioned hardcover books for a quiet read.

By Becky Johnson