Libraries
Inspired by the post on books, combined with the fact that audiobooks and spoken word content seem to improve my commute, I poked around at my public library website for a bit yesterday, between waiting for countless builds of my code that won’t link (why won’t you link, damn you?!) and found that they, through some sort of partnership with NetLibrary, have electronic content (both ebooks and audiobooks) that I can “check out” from the library, from the comfort of my own chair! I see that I can’t put the audiobooks on my iPod but they’ll still be great for when I’m working at my desk.
In addition, it looks like I have access to all sorts of online references (such as “premium” access on Oxford Reference Online). Libraries have really come a long way.
I won’t be able to answer your comments because I’ll be getting ready to take my dinosaur for a spin around the block.
You should check out Book Mooch, http://bookmooch.com/. Since I enrolled about a month ago, I’ve given away about 5 hardcover books and received about 6. It’s a great site that allows you to build up points and then use those points to mooch books from others. It works perfectly for me since I go through books so quickly and my local used bookstore doesnt take back hardcovers.
For everyone’s info, we at Bookyards ( http://www.bookyards.com ) have compiled a good collection of digital libraries with books available for downloading for free. Just go to Bookyards “Library Collections – E Books†at http://www.bookyards.com/links.html?type=links&category_id=1780
There are approximately 350 digital libraries separated alphabetically and by category, with over 200,000 ebooks
yay for tech-no-lo-gee!