It’s a bookmobile whose mission is to convince readers that they may no longer need bookmobiles. Since 2008, Florida’s Tampa Bay Library Consortium's 74-foot long 18-wheeler has functioned as a showplace for introducing area residents to the world of digital library resources.
According to a Dec. 2, 2010 article in the St Petersburg Times, the first e-book Hernando County Public Library user Cheryl Antalik downloaded from the digital bookmobile was Nora Roberts' Vision in White. "It wasn't hard to do," Antalik was quoted as saying. "You just follow the instructions."
The Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) uses OverDrive, the world’s leading distributor of audiobooks and e-books, to provide downloads of over 4,600 e-books and over 4,000 audiobooks to local residents. Readers only need a library card and an Internet connection to take advantage of this free service.
Tampa Bay Library Consortium members can use the TBLC digital media catalog to locate OverDrive’s audiobooks and e-books, both of which are available in a variety of formats. They can listen to audiobooks or read e-books on PCs, Macs, iPods, iPhones, Androids, Sony Readers and Nooks. OverDrive does not provide e-books for Kindle readers, though, due to issues with digital rights management (DRM).
As OverDrive’s own monthly statistical reports reveal, Cheryl Antalik’s choice of a Nora Roberts e-book to download is hardly unusual. The company’s December 2010 list of its “Most Downloaded Audiobooks and eBooks” has Roberts’ Happy Ever After, her final Bride Quartet book, as the seventh most downloaded e-book in the adult fiction category. Happy Ever After also ranked fifth among downloaded audiobooks in that category. Other 2010 reports from OverDrive have revealed similar results for Bed of Roses and Savor the Moment, two additional titles in Roberts’ Bride Quartet.
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