Sounds like...

We've been talking tech at the library lately, so this is the perfect time to learn about our downloadable audiobooks!

No matter where you are, if you have an Internet connection you can get an audiobook from the library. Just click on the "Downloadable Audiobooks" link on our home page and you'll discover a catalog of more than 2,000 titles ready to be downloaded and listened to at MontanaLibrary2Go. Most can be burned to a CD, or saved onto an MP3 player or iPod. Browse by age-group, most popular, recently returned, or even always available titles. All you need is a Missoula Public Library card. It's free!

Missoula is buzzing about audiobooks. We've demonstrated our downloadable catalog to students and school librarians, and even chatted about them at the Lions club this month. If you would like to learn more, we have a computer station just for downloading audiobooks near our Reference desk - no lines, and help is on hand.

If you're interested in having us visit with your group - just ask! Call 721-2665. We love to show off our fabulous services. Missoula Public Library - Think...MORE!

Whatcha Listenin' To?

In the car, at the gym, on your laptop-- audiobooks are popping up everywhere! Where is your favorite place to listen to a book? Tell us!

As always I’m curious to learn what audio books people are enjoying these days, so last week I asked library staff and MPL Facebook fans www.facebook.com/missoulapubliclibrary “Whatcha Listenin’ to?” Here are some of the responses I received:

Fire by Kristin Cashore, Read by Xanthe Elbrick

YCD CASHORE or Download via www.montanalibrary2go.org

In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world.

Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli, Read by Conor Donovan

Available via partner libraries or Download via www.montanalibrary2go.org

What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe? Jerry Spinelli knows.

Fury by Salman Rushdie, Narrated by the author

BKCD RUSHDIE

Malik Solanka left his wife and son in England and fled to New York where he met beautiful Neela. Tormented by guilt and estranged from the modern world by his "furies," Malik begins a personal quest to overcome his anger.

My Life in France by Julia Child, Read by Flo Salant Greenberg

Available via partner libraries or Download via www.montanalibrary2go.org

Here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found her "true calling."

P.S. Read or Listen to three books and earn a free small coffee drink during Winter Reading Club Jan. 15 - March 15 2010.

Overdrive Troubles (are no more!)

After our system upgrade that happened early this week, our audio book download site, Overdrive, is not working with our patrons. People are working right now to get this corrected, so hopefully it will be back up and running in the next day or so. Until then, I can point you to two different websites that offer free, legal audiobooks for download.

Open Culture

Open culture scans the web for available audio book downloads and centralizes them. There are a lot of popular books on this site from Issac Asimov to William Butler Yates.

Librivox

Librivox is a fantastic project that pairs public domain materials with willing readers and posts the results free for you to download and listen to. The selection on this site is amazing, so be sure to check it out.

We'll let you know as soon as Overdrive is back up and running, but until then, you should have enough listening material to keep you busy from these two, outstanding resources.

*Update - 2:30 pm* It looks like Overdrive is back up and running. Thanks to everyone who worked to get this service going as quickly as possible. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a look at the other audio book services as well!

Tons O' Updates

(Original Photo by Flickr user Xurble. Some Rights Reserved)

If you've been to the library, or you follow this blog, you no doubt know that we've been going through some pretty big changes. I thought I'd take a moment to update you on the progress, or changes to what I've already told you.

In downloadable audio news, the folks at Overdrive have just rolled out a mac version of their media console. Now you mac users can download and listen to audio books on your computer and transfer them to mp3 players. I'm not a mac user, so let me know what problems you encounter and I'll try to find a solution or workaround. Just head over to MontanaLibrary2Go and pick up the player.

In self hold pick-up news, we've changed the way holds will be ordered because of privacy concerns. Now, you can find your holds ordered by the last 5 digits of your library card number. This way, your name isn't associated at all with the items you are checking out, and isn't visible to anyone else. The holds are located past the current check-out desk on the way to the reference desk.

In "Giant Plastic Blob" news, construction is hammering away, sometimes quite literally. They've made a ton of progress as shown here

In behind the counter news, which I haven't yet posted about, here's a look at our new, stainless steel check-in counters. Our Frenchtown branch librarian Heather is seen here testing the new setup and looking for ways to make to make our work more efficient.

And finally, starting today we're trying out a new system of letting you, the patron, help us out a bit by putting kids and young adult books in the right hand slot, and adult books in the left hand slot. You'll see this when we finish our remodel, so we thought we'd just go ahead and start now to get everyone used to it.

Downloadable audio has arrived!

After months and months of planning, we're proud to announce we now offer downloadable audiobooks!

To get started go to our website and click on the downloadable audiobooks link or head to http://montanalibrary2go.org. You will be instructed to download and install a media console, which will allow you to download audiobooks to your computer. You can download complete books, or select individual chapters if you have a slow connection. Head to the help section if you're having trouble getting started. To see if your mp3 player/iPod will work take a look at the supported device page, but remember, everyone with a computer computer running windows can listen on the computer itself. (edit: reader jon brought up the fact that the media console currently only works in a windows environment. A mac friendly console should be out around the end of the year, but there is no firm release date set. And Linux will be later down the line.)

(photo by flickr user aditza121. Some rights reserved)

We have titles for adults, teens and children. Right now our selection for iPods is pretty small, but growing everyday, so be sure to check back often! The library has mp3 players for available for check out and will soon have a download station in our building for those of you who don't have internet access at home. We're getting that set up right now, and will update the blog when it is ready to go.

Be sure to let us know how the service is working, we're excited to provide this service and want it to work well for everyone!