Once upon a time, people read books on paper.  Publishers made books, libraries made them accessible.

But just as things seemed to be going so well, challenges arose.  Kindles, Nooks, tablet computers and other eReaders – those devices that allow downloading lots of books from the Internet (no paper required); taking them on vacation or tossing them in their backpacks – showed up.  People embraced the devices.  In large numbers, they gave them to one another for Christmas.

As more readers and books went digital, libraries followed suit.  Most libraries nowadays allow customers to check-out eBooks.

At the Pasadena Public Library, we offer digital media for our patrons to check out through both the OverDrive and the 3M Cloud Library.  The 3M Cloud Library delivers its content via the “cloud” giving you virtual access to a book downloaded from the 3M Cloud Library.  Five eBook titles may be checked out at time, and are returned automatically after 21 days, the standard loan period for books and eBooks.

Since the Library first started with OverDrive, it has circulated approximately more than 100,500 items.  In the last couple of years, we have doubled annual circulation and it was over 35,000 digital media check-outs for 2012.

Currently, the Library’s average monthly circulation for digital media is about 4,500 – OverDrive is about 3,300 and 1,200 for the 3M eBooks.

The Library went a step further; it provided eReaders for check-out!

Do you want to read an eBook but were discouraged because you don’t have an eReader?  Come to the Library and we’ll get you started.

And the library patrons lived happily!  Not ever-after… but “happily” for now.