OverDrive is the company that provides a lot of digital content to libraries. If you’ve borrowed an ebook or an audiobook in Libby, or read a magazine in Kanopy, that’s OverDrive. It seems there is some AI weirdness with audiobook narration on OverDrive, and the narrator is only part of the story. On Monday, October 14, librarian Robin Bradford posted on Bluesky that she’d purchased an AI audiobook for her library system and she was … Continue reading AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy →
Your local library might be doing some really, really cool things that you don’t know about. Here are a few incredibly awesome programs at libraries around the country, along with pictures of cats because why not? COVID Tests and Masks Recently we went to visit Freebird at college, and I brought a stack of COVID tests because…dorm, and because the only CVS within walking distance of campus was always sold out. But I can get … Continue reading Unlocking Library Coolness: Many, Many Awesome Things →
This guest post is from Crystal Anne. Crystal Anne with An E comes to us from a sunny clime, but prefers to remain a pale indoor cat. She enjoys reading, cross-stitching something nerdy, going to see live music, and playing video games. She works as an autism consultant by day, got a degree in information science for fun, and currently serves on her local library advisory board. … Last year, I wrote about my quest … Continue reading Guest Post: Library Board Adventuring One Year In →
Welcome back to Wednesday Links! I just got back from taking Linus to the vet for a check up and he’s gained a pound, which is great. (Backstory: Linus was diagnosed with a thyroid condition about two years ago and seeing his weight come back has been great.) However, he is very much a grumpy old man with lots of fighting spirit. We’re also getting some fall weather in New England, so I’m making chili! … Continue reading Links: Book Recs, Auctions, Matt Berry, & Peter Capaldi →
I have been relying on my public library more and more lately, and I’ve discovered a number of very useful, very easy, and terribly addictive tools through my public library’s digital and in-person offerings that aren’t unique to my local system. So, since I have this here website, I’m going to tell you all about them! First up: Libby! Libby is the updated and very spiffy new version of the OverDrive app. You’ve likely seen OverDrive before – … Continue reading Unlocking Library Coolness: Libby →
If your public library offers Hoopla Digital services, and 1,200 of them in the US and Canada do so far, you’ve got access to a metric tonne of digital streaming. My local library doesn’t participate (though several other counties in Maryland do, including Frederick County, Howard, Prince George’s, Prince William, and Charles County, along with much of eastern Maryland). But my former local library in New Jersey does – and I’m sad I didn’t realize … Continue reading If You’ve Got Hoopla, You’ve Got a Lot to Enjoy →
Library: An Unquiet History kicks off by quoting a passage by Thomas Wolfe from Of Time and The River in which a man who works in a large library is beset by book panic, realizing that no matter how fast he reads he will never be able to read all the books in the library. It then goes on to tell the history of libraries (in the sense of collections of books that may or may … Continue reading Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles →
In one of yesterday’s HaBOs, Amanda wrote about being grounded from the library for reading romance novels as part of her request to find her lost book – which was found because y’all know pretty much everything, including, I suspect tomorrow’s lottery numbers. Maybe. After Amanda’s lost book was identified as Silver Fire by Sally Stone, the discussion that evolved afterward was all about your memories of using the library, either the one at school or the one … Continue reading Library Memories →
