Stop by the library today and check out one of our “Modern Scholar” sets on CD. Great professors lecture on topics such as the following:
“Take Me Out to the Ballgame: a History of Baseball in America”
“The People and the Ballot: a History of American Political Politics”
“Islam and the West”
and much more!
The “Modern Scholar” series is available in the lobby of the library.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, The average worker in Connecticut spends 24.1 minutes traveling to work each day, just a shade under the national average of 24.3. Of course, that’s not counting being stuck in traffic jams because of construction, accidents, and other forces of nature. Whether you drive to work, walk, bicycle, or take the bus or train, a good book can make the time fly.
You probably already know that the library has a wide selection of audiobooks on CD and tape. Are you also aware of the many books that we have ready to be downloaded to your WMA/MP3 player, burned to CDs, or simply played from your computer? And we even offer a few e-books that can be read as PDF files.
To start, visit our downloadable audiobook catalog by clicking on the link over on the right side of the screen on our website’s homepage. You can start browsing the collection by categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s and Young Adult, Recently Returned, New Arrivals, and Always Available. You can search by title or author, and you can ask to see only titles that are available. Or you can start with one of the guided tours or tutorials offered.
In order to download audiobooks and e-books, you will first need to install OverDrive Media Console 3 onto your computer. OverDrive is a small application that manages your checked out materials and downloads them to your portable audio device. (The task of burning CDs is handed off to Windows Media Player.) Then you simply start adding books to your cart, proceed to checkout, and start OverDrive in order to download the books you have checked out. Some downloadable audiobooks in our collection are always available, but others may be checked out by only one person at a time. If the audiobook you want is checked out, you can put a hold on it, and you will be notified by email when it is available for you to download. Audiobooks expire 14 days from the time they were checked out.
Portable audio devices come in several sizes, and if you are buying your first player, you may be wondering how much memory you will need to buy. As a rule, the item record in the audiobook catalog will list the filesize in kilobytes (KB) and the duration in hours and minutes. For example, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle, is 157300 KB and 10 hours, 56 minutes long, or roughly 14300 KB per hour of listening time. 14300 KB is equal to 14.3 MB (megabytes), so a 512 MB MP3 player can hold about 35.8 hours of listening pleasure.
This service is intended for home use only, and you will need your 14-digit Cheshire Public Library card number. While you may browse this collection and checkout titles at the library, you will not be able to download the files to a library PC. Apple iPods are not supported yet, but will be later this year.
Detailed instructions are provided at the Library Connection Downloadable Audiobook Catalog, and we’re here to help you if you have any questions.
Subscribe to the RSS feed