E-Books & E-Readers

E-Books are available through Lincoln Trail Libraries System for all cardholders of Newman Regional Library District. 

Searching for E-books

You can search for them at the MyMediaMall.net site or through the LTLS catalog. 

When you use the MyMediaMall site to search, we recommend that you use the Advanced search link in the upper left corner of the page.  Here you can choose the format you want (80% of the e-books on this site are E-PDFs), a subject area or author or title. You can also increase the number of results listed on a page to 25 and put a check in the small box at the bottom to only see items that are available for checkout right then (you can put a hold on titles if not currently available). There are other ways to search on the site, but this seems to be the most expedient in finding items you could check out immediately.  There does not seem to be a good way to seperate children's titles from adult titles in these search results which can be kind of frustrating.

The LTLS catalog search functions a little differently.  It seems to be better at narrowing the results, but you won't know if a title is available until you click through the bibliographic page to the MyMediaMall link displayed on that page.  Using the term "electronic resource" as an "any keyword" when searching on the advanced search page will deliver only titles that are e-books.  You can then add any other keywords that you want, such as author name (last name first), title, subject (romance, mystery, amish, etc.)

E-books come in three formats: Adobe PDF, E-PUB or Mobipocket.  The first two will play on most e-readers though the process might be a bit convoluted if you own a Kindle. Mobipocket can be used on Kindles and on smart phones.

Checking Out Through MyMediaMall

Before you check out a book, you should download to your computer the software you will need from the MyMediaMall site on the lower left side of their page.  Adobe PDF and E-PUB books require Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) and the other needs Mobipocket Reader.  When you get ADE, be sure to sign up for the account.

Once you find a book that you want to read from MyMediaMall, you click on "add to cart" on the far right of the listing.  If you don't see those words, but you see "place a hold" that means there are no available copies at the moment and this will put you on a list to get it.  You will then see "My Cart" with the item you selected.  Click "Proceed to Checkout."  This takes you to a page to sign in to your account. 

 For the library box, click on the arrow to see a drop down menu of libraries and choose Lincoln Trail Libraries System.  Enter your library card number from the back of your card without any spaces between the numbers.  Your pin is usually the last four digits of your home phone. (You can contact the library to find out what it is.) Then click "Sign In."

Choose how long you want to check the item out from 7, 14 or 21 days in the "Lending Period" box under the title.  Then click on "Confirm Checkout."  This completes your check out of the item.  It will now show up in "My Account" in "My Digital Bookshelf."  You will need to download the book by clicking the "Download" button on the left side under the photo of the book.  It should open in Adobe Digital Editions (unless you have a Sony E-Reader and then you need to have it open in the Sony Reader before importing it to ADE).

Plug your reader into the computer and then turn it on.  It should show up at the bottom of the left panel of ADE.  Once the book is in ADE, you can drag the image of the book in the right panel onto the listing for your reader in the left panel to put the book on the reader.

Here is a very good tutorial on how to check out a book on a Nook:

http://beingruth.com/tutorial-library-books-nook-overdrive/

The first sixteen pages of this very detailed description on how to use MyMediaMall.net to check out audiobooks and e-books may be helpful to some though it is for another library in Illinois (the steps are essentially the same):

http://schaumburglibrary.org/readers/files/2011/01/audiobooks.pdf

Checking out NRLD's E-Reader

All NRLD cardholders may borrow our E-Reader, which was donated by Best Buy and G.O.A.L. for the use of our patons.  You will check it out like you do a book or movie with your library card.  You will have to read and sign the E-Reader Policy & Loan Agreement before you take it home.

We will download the book(s) you choose from MyMediaMall onto the Reader here at the library so you can have a stressfree experience with the Reader.  You will have the Reader checked out to you for 14 days. There are currently no renewals allowed.

You can reserve the E--Reader by visiting this page in the LINC catalog and "Requesting any copy."