Listening on Overdrive

Okay. First things first. I have an iPod Nano. I mostly download music. But last year I downloaded an audio book: "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman. Confession: I've never listened to an audio book, not on cassette, CD, or digital medium.

Having thoroughly enjoyed reading Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, of which "The Golden Compass" was the first book, I thought I'd begin my foray into the audiobook world with a title in which I was familiar. Since my library didn't have the audio version of this book at that time (neither on tape, CD, nor through our digital audio collection service, Overdrive), I decided to buy the audio from iTunes. (By the way, we now have the book on audio CD).

When the librarians all attended a training workshop for Overdrive, I found out why "The Golden Compass" wasn't available through that service: there is hardly any children's or young adult titles in the collection. Oh. And you can't use iPods with Overdrive. (Apple Inc. hasn't contracted with them as of this writing). So, as a library patron, why would I want to use this service?

Apparently, a lot of our patrons are enjoying Overdrive. We get a lot of questions about it at the reference desk. Our patrons get to listen to best sellers and popular nonfiction titles for free. While I'm still not big on audiobooks (I've yet to finish listening to "The Golden Compass"), I can appreciate the fact that many "readers" enjoy listening to a good book (and not have to pay upwards of $25 for an audiobook like I did). So I'll give Overdrive another try for my personal edification -- and because it's one of the last assignments for our library's Web 2.0 exploration projects.

Explore. Explore. Explore. Browse. Browse. Browse. Oh what to "read"? Oh wait. Cool. I just found Stephenie Myer's first novel for adults, "The Host". Sounds good to me. Stephenie Meyer is the "hot" young adult author of the best-selling "Twilight" series.

Now I'll listen to an excerpt...

Okay. When I go home I'll download the Overdrive software (easy, because I have a Mac and high-speed internet access) and "check it out" for the 14-day loan period. I do have an MP3 player my friend gave me, so I can listen to it on that device. Thus, I'll give this audiobook stuff another try.

Namaste.