Beyond Method #6

On your blog, add a link to the book record that you viewed and post to your blog about this exercise. Was Project Gutenberg easy to use?  Do your think your patrons would be interested in a public domain service like Project Gutenberg? If a patron wanted help putting a title from Project Gutenberg on an eReader, do you think you would be able to help them? 

Here is the link to the book I viewed. 
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18458/18458-h/18458-h.htm

I discovered Andre Norton back in elementary school.  She introduced me to sci-fi/fantasy literature.  I like Project Gutenberg.  It is straightforward and easy to navigate. 

Some of our patrons may be interested in Project Gutenberg.  The ones who haven't really climbed on board the eBook plane will probably be more willing to investigate this public domain service.  Patrons who rushed out and bought Nooks and Kindles will not appreciate or really want to look at Project Gutenberg.  Those patrons usually love buying books from Amazon or Barnes and Noble to read on their electronic devices.  The newest, latest, most popular, etc and so on is what they seem to be chasing.

Helping a patron download a book from Project Gutenberg to their reader is within my skill set.  I would probably stumble around and make a couple of false starts, but we'd get the job done.  Thankfully, my father explained to my sister and I at a very young age that, "Embarrassment is just a state of mind."
So a brief apology to the patron(s) for the delay and all remains well in my little world.

I wish I had accessed the information before yesterday afternoon.  A patron came into the library and asked me a series of intelligent questions about eBooks: the scope of our library's eBook collection, what electronic devices we have used or recommend, number titles allowed checked out per patron and duration of loan period, and what access to other libraries or sites for loans are available. 

I was dumbfounded!  I had no answers that were truly satisfactory (at least not to me).  However, I haven't worked in state government and non-profit agencies for over 20 years to stumble too terribly when presented with a challenge in a rural library. 

I turned on my mental bs machine and launched into the little bit of knowledge I have, complete with props.  It wasn't that bad. 

I directed the patron to TexShare Database Netlibrary and offered her our little bookmark/info flyer.  I showed her quickly from the circulation desk computer how simple it was to log on and access Netlibrary.  I also briefly showed her my Google library.  I won't claim to have answered her questions completely, however she left with options and resources to learn more about what's out there. 

I do have to sing the praises of the link to the Dear Author site http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/e-book-format-and-device-table/.  That chart is probably going to save my sanity.  Thanks ever so!