Baldwin Public Library expands digital catalog

Can’t get to the library during business hours? Afraid of admonishing stares and accruing late fees? Your dark days may be coming to an end.

For a little more than a month now the Baldwin Public Library has been offering an expanded selection of fiction and non-fiction audio and e-books via its website, www.baldwinpl.org. Upward of 3,000 best-selling and classic titles are now available 24 hours a day to anyone with an Internet-enabled computer and a valid library card.

The BPL became one of more than 50 area libraries participating in the Nassau Digital Doorway program in early August and is already seeing a positive response.

“There was critical mass of patron demand building for this kind of thing,” says Rena Rosenthal, the librarian overseeing the new catalog of digital media. And library director H. Maria Sysak adds that interest is always “…especially high around Christmas when people get their new e-reading devices.”

The Digital Doorway program supports a variety of electronic readers including the iPod, the Sony Reader and the Barnes & Noble Nook. (Amazon’s Kindle is not supported due to its use of proprietary software.) Audiobooks are also available for free download and can either be burned to CD or enjoyed on a variety of mp3 players and even many cell phones.

Borrowing these materials is simple enough — you merely log on, search for what you want, and then download it to your personal device — but returning them is really a breeze: At the end of the lending period (seven days for audiobooks, 14 for ebooks) the files simply expire and return themselves to the digital collection.

To get started exploring the new age of library technology, simply log on to nassau.lib.overdrive.com and look for the Digital Media Guided Tour. If you encounter any problems with the system or have additional questions, click on DigitalDoorway’s “support” link or call the Adult Reference Desk at (516) 223-6228.

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