For years we have been promised, or threatened with, The Electronic Book. All versions of this aspirant to the prize for "Most Influential Event in the History of Reading" since the printing press have missed the mark until Kindle was developed and marketed around 2007.Now it seems we are presented with a variety of similar devices, not to mention the issues that attend them. Will reading material be "cross-platform"? An activity that used to require only eyes to decipher the code now is subject to uploading, downloading, and the possibility of specific materials for specific machines. Reading, Inc. is in process, with Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Noble in the race for readers and revenue.
Coupled with the ease of receiving news via the internet, and the ubiquitous mp3 listening devices, we now seem to be leaving the age of paper print and running towards the digital.
Public libraries and all types of lending institutions are providing content for the public in the manner that is taking shape. Our local libraries are no exception. The chart below shows what types of programs are available in each of the libraries represented by members of this class.
Music Online
The largest online collection of music recordings, scores, reference, and video.
A comprehensive collection of materials for the study of music, covering every time period, genre, cultural group, and geographic region.
Essential full-text reference content.
NetLibrary provides eAudiobooks and supports most content from leading publishers. You must sign up for accounts at the library itself, but afterwards the materials are totally accessible online.
The products above are available at the Musser Library in Muscatine, Iowa.
TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of TumbleBooks, animated talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks are created by taking existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book that you can read, or have read to you.
TumbleReadables is an online collection of read-along titles for elementary, middle school, and high school students that features adjustable online text and complete audio narration. Sentences are highlighted as they are being read and the pages turn automatically. The collection features chapter books, early readers, YA/Teen Novels, high interest/low loevel books for both middle school and high school students, plus classics of American and English Literature.
WILBOR (West-Central Iowa Libraries Building Online Resources) is a service that offers audiobooks to download to your PC or MP3 player. Some titles may also be burned to a CD. As part of the WILBOR Consortium, the Bettendorf, Davenport, and Musser Public Libraries are able to offer an excellent selection of audiobooks for patrons to download and listen to.