The Tampa Bay Library Consortium has about 300 downloadable titles, ranging from the classics to some modern bestsellers.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2005
Books on tape - the literary diet for scores of commuters, exercise buffs and beach bums - are now available to anyone with a home computer and the right library card.
Using a new database launched by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, people can download audio books to their computers, then transfer the digital files to some MP3 players or burn them onto CDs.
The download is free. People can get the books any time without leaving home. And there's nothing to return, so there are no late fees.
"We all love audio books, and everybody has an MP3 player now," said Dianna Sachs, the consortium's member services coordinator. "This seemed like a natural progression from the books on CD that all libraries traditionally carry."
The 300-book collection includes the classics, such as Homer's Odyssey and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, as well as modern bestsellers, such as Dean Koontz's Cold Fire and Nora Roberts' Birthright. There's even Dr. Phil's Getting Real and Dave Barry's Boogers Are My Beat.
"It is fantastic," said Leslie Jones, a Pasco library coordinator who devoured I Am Madame X last weekend while pulling weeds, cleaning her house and building a mailbox.
"I could download one or two parts at a time," Jones said. "When I was ready for the next part, I could download it - and I didn't even have to leave my house."
People can check out up to four books at a time.
As with regular books, once someone checks out a digital book, no one else can use it.
The publishers insisted on that arrangement for copyright reasons, Sachs said.
"It follows the traditional library model: You have one book and you can lend out one book," she said.
The digital book stays on the user's desktop for seven days, then disappears from that computer and becomes available again on the consortium's Web site.
That gives users a weeklong window to transfer the book to an MP3 player (but not an iPod, which has incompatible software) or burn it onto CDs.
The books are divided into smaller digital files that fit nicely onto CDs.
A typical novel fills nine or 10 discs.
For people with high-speed Internet access, downloading a book can take as little as 15 minutes.
The digital book collection is a cooperative effort of eight library systems: Hillsborough County, Pasco County, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, East Lake, Largo, Palm Harbor and Safety Harbor.
Manatee Community College will join the group soon, Sachs said.
Each one is chipping in $4,000 a year for the collection. Sachs said the consortium hopes to add more titles in the future.
Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com
You must have a library card from one of the following public library systems: Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, Pasco County, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, East Lake, Largo, Palm Harbor or Safety Harbor.
