Kindle now compatible with OverDrive!

Attention Kindle users: You may now use your Kindle to borrow eBooks from Overdrive. To see the titles available, select the “download audiobooks and eBooks” link on the Library’s homepage. You will then be directed to the eBook collection available through OverDrive. If you see the Kindle icon under a title, then that title is available to borrow on your Kindle. To get started, look at the navigation on the left hand side of the Overdrive homepage where you will see the link “Getting Started”; this information will walk you through the process. Need more help? Then contact us at 873-3149 or askalib@zionsville.lib.in.us

Thinking about a Kindle? Think again.

I hope I'm not too late in telling you this: Think twice before buying a Kindle for Christmas.

I was just thinking about getting an ebook reader as a Christmas present for my mom. Maybe a Kindle? I realized that would be a bad choice. Mom borrows books from the Brownsburg Public Library. You can't use a Kindle to read an ebook from that library. In general, you cannot use a Kindle to read an ebook borrowed from any library, including our favorite library.

Ebook and audiobook downloads offered by Hussey-Mayfield come from a company called OverDrive. OverDrive and Amazon (the source of the Kindle) haven't agreed on terms that would permit OverDrive to offer Kindle-compatible ebooks.

Fortunately, there are many e-reader devices -- including the iPad, iPhone and Android devices -- that you can use to read ebooks from libraries.

Or save your money and keep life simple by reading your ebooks on your PC. I use my 4-year-old IBM Lenovo laptop to read ebooks from Hussey-Mayfield AND ebooks from Amazon. Kindle-formatted ebooks from amazon.com will work on almost any PC. You just need the free Kindle for PC software, which you download from amazon.com. To read Hussey-Mayfield ebooks on your PC, you just need free software from OverDrive. I use them both.

Have a merry Christmas and a New Year full of happy e-reading!