Union County now has ebooks available for their patrons. If you are already familiar with using ebooks, you will find this a welcome new service. If you are new to reading in this way, it is very simple to start and you will find that you can read on several different devices.

For those who are new to ebooks and downloading, there will be an introductory class on Saturday at the Monroe branch. However, as of this writing, there was only one opening left.

Ebooks have been available at different public libraries for quite some time, but it was not until this past September, that Kindle books became available. Since that time, there have been many controversies between publishers and libraries. Expense and privacy issues have been the main concerns. Different publishers have put certain restrictions on their books and some have gone so far as to ‘take their books’ back. Penguin, for a time, withdrew all of their Kindle titles from libraries. Harper Collins put a restriction that their ebooks could only be checked out a total of 26 times. With their restriction of only being able to check out books for 2 weeks at a time, this would mean their titles would expire in about a year’s time. 

Still, with all the controversies and issues to be worked out, this will be a convenience that many can enjoy. In my library science classes at ECU, the question of ‘will ebooks ever totally replace paper ones?’ is constantly discussed. I don’t see ebooks totally replacing paper books for some time, if ever, but they are here to stay, so it is good for them to be available at our public libraries.

For more information about using ebooks and what devices you can use to read on, check out the library website: www.union.lib.nc.us