Download Kindle Format in OverDrive

Here's a great video from the Orange County Library System in Florida on how to download Kindle format eBooks in OverDrive...

Board Game Representation of using eBooks on OverDrive

Thanks to Craig Haggit, Adult Services Librarian at the Lancaster Public Library for sharing this Prezi presentation with me.

Lisa Bunker, a librarian at Pima County Public Library in Tucson AZ, posted this creative Prezi Presentation, Dowloading Library eBooks Using OverDrive, using a board game representation of the process. The drawing shows there are many steps involved, but instead of feeling overwhelmed by it all, the child within feels challenged to have fun and win the game! Great stuff.

One note: in our OverDrive interface, we do not offer a 21-day loan period; just 14-day or 7-day. Other than that, everything in this presentation is true for us. Also, for those of you with access to our Intranet, LILLY, I posted this to the OverDrive page under the OverDrive Training heading.

Baker's Dozen #8: Digital Books on Prezi

Did You Know About Key Tips in Office?

WOWZA!! I'm putting together a training about moving from Office 2003 to Office 2007. I then need to create a training about moving from Office 2003 to Office 2010. In my gathering of information, I have just discovered a WONDERFUL hidden gem you may not be aware of in 2007 and 2010. I'm referring to Key Tips!

Key Tips appear whenever you press the ALT key. Little Key Tip bubbles pop up for each tab and then after pressing the key shown in the Key Tip bubble and being taken to that tab you get to see even more Key Tips on the commands in the groups. For someone like me who has NO memory and could never really use keyboard shortcuts to their full potential, this offers much hope! Who knows, if I use these enough maybe they'll become embedded in my brain and I'll move with speed over my keyboard without having to touch my mouse.

See Microsoft's blog for step by step directions.

OverDrive Video Tutorials from KCLS

From the ALA Learning Blog's 2/24/11 post titled: "Video Tutorials for Downloading eBooks From OverDrive"...

"The King County Library System has created a video tutorial to walk users through the process of downloading Adobe Digital Editions and transferring a title to their device. This is useful for staff to familiarize themselves with the process and patrons who can watch the video repeatedly until they successfully download a book on their machine.

Patrons can also watch video tutorials on downloading to Apple and Android portable devices or using NetLibrary. These can be found on the KCLS YouTube channel playlist Using the Library".

This is a great way to SEE how OverDrive works. KCLS has done a great job putting these together. For readers from the Library System of Lancaster County, be sure to check out the page I put together on LILLY where you can watch all of the videos.

How to Stop Guest/Visitor Card Abuse

How many times have you had to get rid of one of your Guest/Visitor Patron Cards at your library because someone jotted down the barcode number to give to friends or use again, etc? If you don't want to keep creating new cards in these situations, here is an idea you might want to implement.

I share this in the Advanced Circ trainings, but thought some of you might not know about it. I first heard of Ephrata Public Library doing this, so thanks to them for a great procedure. Yes, it will take more time, but it will stop a lot of frustration:

1. First, scan all of your Guest/Visitor Cards and click on EDIT and change the INTERNET field to N for ALL of your cards.
2. When giving out a Guest/Visitor Card, scan the card, click EDIT and change the INTERNET field to Y - they can then use the public PC and CybraryN is happy :-)
3. When the Guest/Visitor Card is returned, scan the card, click EDIT and change the INTERNET field back to N - now even if the barcode was written down, if they give the barcode number to a friend or try to sneak in and use it, it won't work. Only the person who has the card in hand will be able to use that number.

For more information about the Guest/Visitor Card, check out the Circulation Manual . Click the plus sign to the left of Chapter 3 Patron Records then click on the section titled "Guest Card Creation for Use with CybraryN".