So you purchased yourself an e-reader? Congrats! You’re now connected to the big, wide world of electronic books, magazines, newspapers, and comics. How do you go about getting those lovely e-books on to your e-reader? Well that’s a different story.
Although each e-reader that is available on the market these days has a slightly different method of purchasing and borrowing books, there are some commonalities between most of them. To begin with, each e-reader that you will purchase will come connected to a Book Store that allows you to purchase e-books to put on your e-reader and your home computer. The latest models will allow you to do this wirelessly right from your e-reader. Reading the user guide that accompanies your e-reader is the best way to get instructions on how to purchase books from the store.
Borrowing e-books is a whole other bag of tricks. Your local library, such as the County of Prince Edward Public Library and Archives , will most likely work with an online lending program called Overdrive. The program works exactly like your library, you can borrow e-books electronically for between 7-14 days, as well as audiobooks for 7 days.
Dedicated E-readers
Borrowing E-books
For e-readers that do not have app capabilities (i.e. Kobo Touch, Sony Reader PRS-505 Barnes and Noble Nook etc), to borrow books through the Overdrive program you must first have a program called Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your desktop or laptop computer. ADE is free software provided by Adobe (available at http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ ) that acts like a digital library on your computer’s desktop and keeps all of the downloaded books in one spot. ADE allows you to manage your books once you have borrowed them, transfer them to your e-reader, and return your books if you finish them before the lending period has expired. You will NOT be able to access your books on your e-reader without ADE.
ADE will walk you through step-by-step how to install the program
Now that you have downloaded ADE, the program will launch itself and ask you to complete the setup. You must have an Adobe ID to authorize the product to your computer. If you do not have an ID, click Get Adobe ID. This will open up a new window or tab in your web browser and take you to the Adobe website. Underneath New to Adobe?, click Create An Adobe Account.
Fill out the information in the required form, and submit. This will create your Adobe ID that you can now use to finish authorizing Adobe Digital Editions - simply enter the email address that you registered to your Adobe ID, and the password that you used.
Once you have downloaded ADE and authorized it, proceed to the Overdrive website and click Login.
Enter County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form and then enter in your library card number and your pin. This will bring you My Account.
From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books. When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart. If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow. By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file - you will need to Save the file to your computer.
When the file has been downloaded and saved to your computer one of two things will happen. First, ADE might recognize that you have downloaded a book and automatically open and import the book into your ADE library. Secondly, you may have to do this manually. To do so, open ADE and and from the Library drop down menu in the top left-hand corner, select Add Item To Library (CTRL + O). This will open a new window and ask you to locate the downloaded e-book file. Once you’ve located the e-book file, double click on the file and this will import the e-book into ADE. The e-book cover will now appear in your library in ADE. You’re HALF WAY to getting your e-book onto your e-reader.
Now that your e-book is in ADE, plug your e-reader into your computer via the USB cable that comes with it. Allow the computer a couple of minutes to recognize that you have connected your e-reader. Once the computer has recognized your hardware, the name of the e-reader will show up in the left-hand panel in ADE, underneath Recently Read.
Once ADE has recognized your e-reader device, you are able to Drag and Drop the book that you have downloaded onto your e-reader. All you need to do is left-click on the image of the book in your ADE library, hold the mouse button, and drag that image over onto the title of your e-reader in the left-hand panel. When the green plus sign appears, you may release the left mouse button and your e-book will be transferred over to your e-reader. This may take a few seconds.
And there you have it folks! You have successfully synced your e-book to your e-reader! You are now able to take your e-reader wherever you go, and can read your downloaded e-book until your lending period has expired.
Returning E-books
Once you have finished reading your e-book, you have two options. You can either wait for the lending period to expire, and the book will automatically no longer be available to view on your e-reader - the book will still appear, but you won’t be able to access it - you can simply delete the item; OR you can return the book and delete it from ADE and your e-reader.
To return the book to Overdrive (this frees up 1 of the 5 books that you are allowed to borrow at a time), open ADE and move your mouse cursor over the book that you wish to return. In the top left hand corner of the book title page you will see a sideways arrow appear (it resembles a play sign
but will turn into a downward facing arrow once clicked), click Return Borrowed Item (if the item has expired but you wish to get rid of the inaccessible item choose Delete Item). This will return the item to Overdrive, as well as delete the file from Adobe Digital Editions.
Sony Reader Wifi (older models please refer to Dedicated E-Readers)
Borrowing E-books
Open the Public Library app and findCounty of Prince Edward Public Library . Click the provided link for the Ontario Library Services Download Centre and then click Log-In in the top right-hand corner. Search for County of Prince Edward Public Library
E-Readers with Overdrive Apps
Borrowing E-books
By choosing an e-reader that has Overdrive app capabilities (Kobo Vox, tablets - i.e. iPad, Android tablet, Asus Eee Pad), you have made your adventure for borrowing and returning e-books significantly easier!
Access the App Store on your e-reader, and search for Overdrive. Locate the Overdrive app and download it to your e-reader. Open the Overdrive app and Login. Enter in County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form, and then enter in your library card number and your pin. This will bring you My Account. This will bring you My Account. From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books. When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart. If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow. By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file. The book will then appear in your books list on your e-reader!
Returning E-books
To return your e-book on your Overdrive app, you must select the book title that you wish to return. Once the book has been selected, choose the Delete option, and then choose Return and Delete. Do not choose Delete Without Returning unless your book lending period has already expired.
For any questions that are not explained here, please feel free to leave a comment and one of our CAP Interns will be delighted to help you!
Although each e-reader that is available on the market these days has a slightly different method of purchasing and borrowing books, there are some commonalities between most of them. To begin with, each e-reader that you will purchase will come connected to a Book Store that allows you to purchase e-books to put on your e-reader and your home computer. The latest models will allow you to do this wirelessly right from your e-reader. Reading the user guide that accompanies your e-reader is the best way to get instructions on how to purchase books from the store.
Borrowing e-books is a whole other bag of tricks. Your local library, such as the County of Prince Edward Public Library and Archives , will most likely work with an online lending program called Overdrive. The program works exactly like your library, you can borrow e-books electronically for between 7-14 days, as well as audiobooks for 7 days.
You do require a library card and a 4 digit pin that is assigned to you by the library.
If you don’t know your pin, please feel free to contact the library at 613-476-5962
If you don’t know your pin, please feel free to contact the library at 613-476-5962
and any of the staff can assist you.
Dedicated E-readers
Borrowing E-books
For e-readers that do not have app capabilities (i.e. Kobo Touch, Sony Reader PRS-505 Barnes and Noble Nook etc), to borrow books through the Overdrive program you must first have a program called Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your desktop or laptop computer. ADE is free software provided by Adobe (available at http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ ) that acts like a digital library on your computer’s desktop and keeps all of the downloaded books in one spot. ADE allows you to manage your books once you have borrowed them, transfer them to your e-reader, and return your books if you finish them before the lending period has expired. You will NOT be able to access your books on your e-reader without ADE.
 |
| This is what the Adobe Digital Editions download page looks like. Please scroll down slightly on the Adobe web page to see the Launch button |
ADE will walk you through step-by-step how to install the program
Now that you have downloaded ADE, the program will launch itself and ask you to complete the setup. You must have an Adobe ID to authorize the product to your computer. If you do not have an ID, click Get Adobe ID. This will open up a new window or tab in your web browser and take you to the Adobe website. Underneath New to Adobe?, click Create An Adobe Account.
Fill out the information in the required form, and submit. This will create your Adobe ID that you can now use to finish authorizing Adobe Digital Editions - simply enter the email address that you registered to your Adobe ID, and the password that you used.
Once you have downloaded ADE and authorized it, proceed to the Overdrive website and click Login.
 |
| This is the home page for Overdrive |
Enter County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form and then enter in your library card number and your pin. This will bring you My Account.
From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books. When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart. If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow. By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file - you will need to Save the file to your computer.
When the file has been downloaded and saved to your computer one of two things will happen. First, ADE might recognize that you have downloaded a book and automatically open and import the book into your ADE library. Secondly, you may have to do this manually. To do so, open ADE and and from the Library drop down menu in the top left-hand corner, select Add Item To Library (CTRL + O). This will open a new window and ask you to locate the downloaded e-book file. Once you’ve located the e-book file, double click on the file and this will import the e-book into ADE. The e-book cover will now appear in your library in ADE. You’re HALF WAY to getting your e-book onto your e-reader.
Now that your e-book is in ADE, plug your e-reader into your computer via the USB cable that comes with it. Allow the computer a couple of minutes to recognize that you have connected your e-reader. Once the computer has recognized your hardware, the name of the e-reader will show up in the left-hand panel in ADE, underneath Recently Read.
 |
| Notice that the KOBOeReader is now recognized in Adobe Digital Editions, underneath Recently Read in the left-hand panel. |
Once ADE has recognized your e-reader device, you are able to Drag and Drop the book that you have downloaded onto your e-reader. All you need to do is left-click on the image of the book in your ADE library, hold the mouse button, and drag that image over onto the title of your e-reader in the left-hand panel. When the green plus sign appears, you may release the left mouse button and your e-book will be transferred over to your e-reader. This may take a few seconds.
And there you have it folks! You have successfully synced your e-book to your e-reader! You are now able to take your e-reader wherever you go, and can read your downloaded e-book until your lending period has expired.
Please note: ALWAYS remember to safely eject your e-reader before disconnecting from your computer. To do this, click the Show Hidden Icons button 
, click the Safely Remove USB button (the icon with the green check mark) and then choose your e-reader device. This will safely disconnect your e-reader so that you do not lose any data.
, click the Safely Remove USB button (the icon with the green check mark) and then choose your e-reader device. This will safely disconnect your e-reader so that you do not lose any data.Returning E-books
Once you have finished reading your e-book, you have two options. You can either wait for the lending period to expire, and the book will automatically no longer be available to view on your e-reader - the book will still appear, but you won’t be able to access it - you can simply delete the item; OR you can return the book and delete it from ADE and your e-reader.
To return the book to Overdrive (this frees up 1 of the 5 books that you are allowed to borrow at a time), open ADE and move your mouse cursor over the book that you wish to return. In the top left hand corner of the book title page you will see a sideways arrow appear (it resembles a play sign
but will turn into a downward facing arrow once clicked), click Return Borrowed Item (if the item has expired but you wish to get rid of the inaccessible item choose Delete Item). This will return the item to Overdrive, as well as delete the file from Adobe Digital Editions.Sony Reader Wifi (older models please refer to Dedicated E-Readers)
Borrowing E-books
Open the Public Library app and find
This will bring you to My Account. From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books. When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart. If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow. By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type
the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file. The book will then appear in your books list on your e-reader!
NOTE: You CANNOT return books early with this model of the Sony Reader.E-Readers with Overdrive Apps
Borrowing E-books
By choosing an e-reader that has Overdrive app capabilities (Kobo Vox, tablets - i.e. iPad, Android tablet, Asus Eee Pad), you have made your adventure for borrowing and returning e-books significantly easier!
Access the App Store on your e-reader, and search for Overdrive. Locate the Overdrive app and download it to your e-reader. Open the Overdrive app and Login. Enter in County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form, and then enter in your library card number and your pin. This will bring you My Account. This will bring you My Account. From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books. When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart. If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow. By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file. The book will then appear in your books list on your e-reader!
Returning E-books
To return your e-book on your Overdrive app, you must select the book title that you wish to return. Once the book has been selected, choose the Delete option, and then choose Return and Delete. Do not choose Delete Without Returning unless your book lending period has already expired.
For any questions that are not explained here, please feel free to leave a comment and one of our CAP Interns will be delighted to help you!
After we bought this kind of devices, we must search for some great sites, where we can download for free or buy eBooks. Personally, I found very interesting things about All You Can Books, a site where we can download some electronic books. It's great that we don't need to go to the libraries and have our personal library, just for us.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of books that are "free", also check out this program that you install on your PC, and use to find and download free books (which you can then put on your reader):
http://calibre-ebook.com/