Looking for free e-books?

Looking for e-books?  As you know, ACPL has a growing collection but as of yet, it’s still small compared to our print collection.  If you’re looking for more options, here are a few websites to try:

• Project Gutenberg.  Project Gutenberg may have just been a sparkle in Michael Hart’s eye back in 1971, but today this online collection offers 38,000+ titles to choose from.  Largely classics or historical works, titles in this collection may be offered freely in the United States because either their copyright has expired or the copyright holder has granted permission for unlimited, non-commercial use.  Browsable by Category, Recently Added and Top Downloads, you can also search by Author and Title.

• Open Library.  An initiative of the non-profit Internet Archive, more than one million e-books are available.  One of the coolest features of this site is the collection of talking books in Daisy format for people with print disabilities.  Browsable by Subject, Author or List.

• Google Books.  In addition to e-books for sale, this site also offers nearly 2 million free e-books in the public domain.

• Baen Free Library.  Baen is a science fiction/fantasy publisher; a selection of their titles is available free of charge to be read online or downloaded.  Baen authors are encouraged to put up the first novel in an ongoing popular series in order to generate interest. Searchable by Author.

• Try Harlequin.  There’s a short survey to fill out but that seems a small price to pay for the 18 free downloadable titles featured on the Free Books page.

• Smashwords.  Although it includes both free and for-purchase titles, more than 30,000 serious writers publish here, making it worth a look.  Searchable by Price, Newest, Best Sellers, Most Downloads, Highest Rated and Length.

Meet the ACPL staff! This month’s featured staffperson: Librarian Becky C.

We are going to try a new feature on this blog profiling an ACPL staffperson each month. Using a variety of serious and silly questions, we hope to share with you the diversity of the Allen County Public Library’s staff. Which brings us to…

Ten Questions with Becky C.:

1.  What do you do at the library, and how long have you been doing it?

I celebrated my fifth year with ACPL in January — it’s gone by fast!  I like to think of myself as the Where’s Waldo  character of the library (every library needs at least one!).  I’m lucky enough to work in each of the reference departments at Main and it’s anyone’s guess as to which desk I’ll be staffing at any given time.

2. What is the favorite part of your job?

Very favorite?  Helping people find what they’re looking for, whether it’s a new author to check out (I love talking about books!) or something to help them tackle something stressful in their life.

3.  Team Katniss or Team Peeta? 

Tough one!  I could have chosen between Gale and Peeta fairly easily, but this is difficult.  I’m going with Team Peeta—I love that he wants to remain true to himself, that he doesn’t want to allow the Capitol to make him hard and uncaring.  I also love that he does everything he can to keep Katniss safe.

4.  What motivates you?

Loving whatever I’m doing.  Professionally this has meant finding the right fit for me.  As a librarian, I’ve been a youth services specialist, a reference librarian, and a branch manager — and now I’m back to reference librarian.  While I enjoyed aspects of each role, and I’m incredibly grateful that I took advantage of those opportunities, I find that my true love is being a colleague rather than a supervisor and a generalist rather than a specialist.  I’m a curious person who likes to dabble in different things. I love that my current job allows me to work in a variety of departments and encourages me to learn about all sorts of stuff.

5.  What are you proudest of having accomplished in your professional career? 

A couple of things stand out. When I was a branch manager, I created a work-from-home arrangement for my publicity specialist when circumstances dictated that she could no longer continue under the standard model.  I also created a job-sharing arrangement to accommodate a new parent’s needs and to foster a new employee.  The new employee went on to ”library school” and is now in charge of youth services at her branch.  The new parent is now in charge of youth services at a different branch.

6.  What is your favorite word?

Colin Firth.  Just kidding. I do love language and am fond of little-used words like purloined, miscreant or ne’er-do-well (although I’m not fond of what they stand for!).

7.  Have you ever participated in a Flash Mob? 

Too uncoordinated. I think they’d tell me the wrong place and time so that I didn’t single-handedly destroy the phenomenon.

8. What are you afraid of?

Narrow-mindedness.

9.  What book are you currently reading?

Hunting Season by Nevada Barr.

10.  If you could have dinner with one author – living or dead – who would it be and why? 

Lisa Lutz.  Her Spellman series is so outrageously funny that she simply has to be a blast to hang out with.

We hope you enjoyed meeting Becky through this profile. Let us know what you think of this feature. (And if you’re an ACPL staffperson and would like to volunteer to be featured on the blog… email me, we’ll see what we can do!)

Inspirational Indiana

Carelessly surfing the Internet for reliable information can flip you off your motherboard onto the shoals of biased or shoddy web pages. We ACPL librarians are quick to recommend instead that you search in  the authoritative Internet resources we have assembled on our home page under the heading Research Databases.

Many of those databases are part of the state of Indiana’s Inspire system. If you live in Indiana and  haven’t explored the Inspire site, you owe it to yourself to go to www.inspire.in.gov. Scroll over the INSPIRE Databases link on the top of the page and choose Information. You’ll see descriptions of databases about health care, business, science, literature and much more.

Then go back to the top and click on Search. Next choose Advanced Search, and you’re ready to dig into thousands of publications ranging from medical journals to Consumer Reports. You can search any combination of the databases and either seek strictly full text or include abstracts. There are millions of items, and they’re from reputable, identifiable sources.

Inspire has been around for several years and isn’t as flashy as many websites. It may not have as many full articles as Wikipedia. It is, however, a very useful educational service provided by Indiana state government. Take a look at it and then tell your state legislators you appreciate their good work.

New e-book challenges for libraries

As of February 10,  Penguin can be counted among the publishers unwilling to allow libraries to lend their e-book titles.  MacMillan and Simon & Schuster are two other big names on that list.  Why?  Publishers worry that borrowing an e-book from a library is too easy;  with a few clicks of your mouse, you can download an e-book in the comfort of your own home. Why would you pay to do that when it’s just as easy to download it for free?  When asked why e-books are considered a threat to profit and print materials are not, the answer comes back to convenience:  print materials require making at least two special trips to the library, one to check out the book and one to return it.  Wear & tear on physical items that many others have handled and the chance of incurring overdue fees are also considered incentives to purchase rather than to borrow.  Plus, many people enjoy the look and feel of print materials and take pride in building their own personal collections.

It’s not as simple that, however. Most e-books not under the public domain come with software which ensures that only one person can read an e-book copy at a time. To provide more access to popular titles, more e-book copies need to be purchased.  Those publishers who do sell e-books to libraries generally charge libraries more per title than they do the average buyer.  And then there’s HarperCollins. Beginning in March 2011, this major publisher began licensing use of each e-book copy for a maximum of 26 checkouts.  After the limit is reached, the library must repurchase access rights in order to retain the title in the collection.  In this time of shrinking budgets, this means that libraries building e-book collections have to start small, which means that patrons often see a long waiting list for titles they want to read, if the title is even available at all.  If you’ve ever wondered why our collection doesn’t include certain e-book titles by Nevada Barr, Glenn Beck, Janet Evanovich and others, you might want to check the publisher.  Sometimes we’re lucky and authors use more than one publisher; sometimes we’re not, and if the only publisher for a given title is MacMillan, Penguin or Simon & Schuster, we’re unable to purchase it for the collection.

Back to Penguin. While we are unable to purchase additional copies or titles from this publisher, titles currently in the collection will remain in the collection.  Kindle users will have a couple of extra hoops to jump through, however.  Kindle users will now have to download Penguin titles onto a computer and then transfer them to their reader with a USB cable.  For Kindle-app devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, stay tuned. We’re checking into it and will keep you posted.

For Further Reading:  Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War, Ebook Publishers Want Library Borrowing to be Difficult, HarperCollins’ 26-Checkout Limit

Looking for a good romance?

With Valentine’s Day looming large on the calendar, what better time is there to talk about romance novels?  Romance novels come in a variety of styles and settings:  whether you prefer sweet or saucy, contemporary or historical, there’s sure to be an author who lights your fire.  Here are a few websites we like to refer to—may they lead you to something new and exciting!

• All About Romance.  With 6,000+ reviews, hundreds of author interviews, reader forums, and an If You Like page, this website is simply wonderful.  I love that the If You Like page has two options:  If You Like by Author/Style and If You Like by Setting/Genre.
• Romance Reader at Heart.  Covering 100,000+ titles, this site has a lot to offer.  The book database section allows you to search by type (paranormal, suspense, etc.), locale (British, French, etc.) or time period (Civil War, medieval, etc.).  Other nifty features include author profiles, links to historical websites, and contests & giveaways.
• Romance Writers of America.  Did you know that romance novels lead fiction sales?  RWoA knows and proudly shares that information on its statistics page.  The coolest part of this site has to be the Contests & Awards page, which lists award-winning romance titles in addition to noting individuals who have made their mark on the genre.

Rolling in the Grammy nods

The music industry’s big night — The Grammy Awards – is happening on Sunday, February 12.  If you like celebrity, spectacle, and some truly bizarre live duets (Eminem and Elton John, anyone?), you’ll definitely want to tune in.

And if you don’t like awards, let me spoil it for you:  Adele’s going to win everything.  There.  I saved you three hours of your life.

Not-so-young adult novels

Two months before its theatrical release, The Hunger Games (based on the first book in Suzanne Collins’s young adult trilogy) is generating a lot of buzz – and it’s not just teens doing the talking. Collins’s novel, a tension-filled story of adolescents forced into a televised fight to the death, counts legions of adults among its fans.

While The Hunger Games has many adults visiting the Young Adults section, it’s hardly the only teen novel with adult appeal. The following novels are just a few of my YA personal favorites.

• The Book Thief – the story of one young German girl in World War II, narrated by Death.
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – a largely autobiographical story by Sherman Alexie, enhanced by clever illustrations.
• The Fault in Our Stars – John Green’s newest offers a fine example of the witty, rapid-fire dialogue characteristic of his work.

These books – and many other worthwhile reads — are for people of all ages who enjoy well-written narratives.  Are there other YA novels on your radar?

Stop! You’re Killing Me!

Are you looking for a new mystery novel to read?  Stop, You’re Killing Me! may be just the website you want.  Mystery fans Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich have put together an index of more than 3,500 authors who have written mystery, crime, suspense, thriller and spy novels.  There’s a lot to love about this website. A click of the mouse takes you to a Read-Alikes page so you can easily find authors similar to those you already know and love, or you can easily find authors who write a specific type of mystery, such as  Standard P.I.  There are also quick links to a Historical Index and a Diversity Index, so if you’re most interested in a particular time period or you are looking for a book written from a certain ethnic perspective, this is a handy guide.  Other nifty features include shortcuts to New Additions, Book Awards and Book Reviews.  The book reviews on the site are written by Surber and Ulrich, but titles are linked to amazon.com for further information.

I’ll be honest, Surber and Ulrich had me with those links alone, but there’s more.  Stop, You’re Killing Me! publishes a newsletter twice a month that includes new authors and characters added to the website, announcements of new hardcover and paperback book publications, and information about occasional book giveaways.  Did you catch that last part?  Book giveaways!!!

Freedom to stop reading

Time was long ago when I would buy Playboy and read every word. Honest. I couldn’t justify spending $2.50 only for pictures. Such reading required determination and a dollop of neurosis, as will be appreciated by anyone who has read a chapter of the Playboy Philosophy. Later, the compulsion transferred to the high-brow journal Foreign Affairs. It also applied to just about every book I started.

Liberation came after I began to read The Haj; something about Leon Uris’s portrayal of Arabs was too off-putting. So I quit reading it. This did cause some anxiety, but it was manageable, and eventually I stopped reading any books I had come to not like. After a chapter or two of Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, it was obvious there was going to be big-league betrayal and heartbreak. Too rich for my blood. A few weeks ago, I dropped Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife for much the same reason. And So It Goes, a biography of Kurt Vonnegut, came to a premature end because the portrayal of Vonnegut was so unappealing. Presently I am slogging through Colleen McCullough’s interminable The First Man in Rome only because I’m interested in the historical story; the long, clunky dialogs may yet persuade me to give it up.

Compulsion to finish reading a book (or listening to it)  is not a rare condition. Here’s a blog in which the author lists the warning signs of a boring book. Here’s a forum where several readers talk about their problem. Breaking free requires acceptance that you may be failing to stretch yourself or that you may be missing out on something good, but it also gives you more time to find something better, or at least something that you will enjoy more.

So if you need permission to start stopping when the book just isn’t working for you, it is hereby granted, by a librarian no less. Read what you want to read. Life is short, or so I’m told.

Movie review: One for the Money

With a couple of exceptions, most notably Explosive Eighteen, I love the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.  I’ve always thought that this lighthearted series with its cast of quirky characters led by an ex-lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter would translate well to the big screen.  Imagine my excitement last year when I discovered that One for the Money was in the works.  Let’s just say that January 27, 2012 has been circled on my calendar for some time!

I liked it!  If you’ve read the book, you know that it has a few downright scary scenes; these were toned down for the movie and I think that was a wise choice.  Evanovich had 334 pages to include the scary and still maintain an overall humorous feel;  the film only had 106 minutes.  I’ll disagree with the big reviewers out there and say that I thought Katherine Heigl captured Stephanie’s character pretty well.  I loved Jason O’Mara as Morelli, Daniel Sunjata as Ranger, and Sherri Shepherd as Lula.  Steph’s on-screen family hasn’t won me over yet. Grandma Mazur was always my favorite character in that group, and I’ve pictured someone like Estelle Getty in that role.  Debbie Reynolds is lovely but, try as I might, I just don’t see her as the frail yet incorrigible  Edna Mazur I’ve loved for 18 books.  Again, I’m disagreeing with the big reviewers out there.

At the end of the movie, my friend and I were watching the credits roll to see where it was filmed (Pittsburgh, PA).  While we were watching the credits, we were comparing our favorite scenes.  A woman a few seats over turned to me and asked if I’d read the books.  This friendly chat led to the ever-present question:  Morelli or Ranger?  I told her that I would choose Morelli each time; she laughed and said that she’d always go for Ranger.  Who has your vote?