Ebooks

I am absolutely THRILLED with ebooks! I love netLibrary; what a blessing that we have it as part of Access PA POWER Library. Because of my delight with netLibrary, I've started purchasing ebooks for our school library's collection. I've been pleased with the ebooks from Follett and Salem Press, but I'm most impressed with the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Their federated search engine is awesome (and I rarely find the need to use that word). Furthermore, I've learned that when I purchase these ebooks for our high school library, they can be used throughout our school district--a sort of electronic interlibrary loan. Talk about spreading the wealth!

Just now I've explored some of the "Best Places to Get Free Books" sites. What a treat for a book lover! My niece showed me BookCrossing last year. Cool idea; kind of a hidden treasure search for curious book lovers. I shared WOWIO with my comic book-loving husband. WellToldTales appears to have some interesting stories; I need to go back there.

And then there's the British Library Online Gallery....oooo, rich! Every library has fragile but valuable books, pamphlets and other resources that should be shared with the world. But letting so many sweaty hands turn those crumbling pages over the years is dangerous to aging print. The BL has found a way to let the rest of us handle original print books safely. Once, long ago, I saw a facsimile of the original Alice's Adventures, and I promised myself I'd go back and read it some day. But before I could, the book was lost. (I suspect tossed out by someone who just wanted to clean out the space--I've never forgiven that person!) Today I saw the original of that book in the BL Online Gallery--oh, yes, I must go back and read it!