In
conversation with a patron the other day, I was reminded that one of our great
local authors, Christian Reid's materials are not readily available to
read. While we have most of her works in
the History Room, primarily for preservation reasons, these books are not
available for check-out. If you want to
read them, you have to make a few trips the History Room and read them here. Is there another way to obtain older books
that may be out of print and no longer available in your library? Indeed there are a few ways that the Rowan
Public Library (RPL) can assist you in finding books that may not reside on the
shelves at the library.
RPL
tries to provide popular fiction and non-fiction books for the patrons of Rowan
County. Once a book has gone through its
peak readership, it may not circulate much and eventually its place on the
shelves at the library is taken by newer more "up-to-date"
books. However some readers just
discovering an author may want to read each and every book. Take for instance, Jane Austen, who has
enjoyed waves of popularity. One can
readily find her books "Pride and Prejudice" or "Emma" on
the library shelves, however "Lady Susan" is a bit more
difficult. A patron can request this
book via an Interlibrary Loan service.
RPL requests this book from another library system, say Davidson College
or Durham County Public Library and one of these libraries may loan the book to
RPL and its patron for a month.
If,
however this book is not available through an interlibrary loan, it is possible
that it can be found in an electronic format and downloaded. There are two particular websites that
provide many books in a digital format both for preservation and access -
Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.
Project
Gutenberg began in 1971; currently they have over 50,000 items and add about
fifty new e-books each week. Although most
items are in English and are predominantly literature from Western cultural
traditions, they have added cookbooks, reference materials, some music notation
and audio files and include works in French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Italian
and Portuguese. The materials can be
downloaded in a variety of formats. For
instance, I found "Lady Susan" in the Gutenberg collection and
downloaded on an ipad using a Kindle app.
Internet
Archive has been invaluable in the History Room for out-of-print or not readily
available non-fiction works that have aided folks in genealogical
research. Internet Archive digitizes volumes
itself, but also has partners, including colleges, universities and other
repositories all over the world that provide items. Started in 1996 as the "Way Back
Machine" archiving web pages, Internet Archive now includes texts, audio, moving images, and
software. They also provide specialized
services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other
persons with disabilities. Some of the
old Salisbury city directories are on the site.
Internet Archive also provides a free digital library for ebooks. Anyone can sign up for "Open
Library" and check out ebooks including almost all of Christian Reid's
out-of-print books. Check these
websites www.openlibrary.org, www.gutenberg.org & www.archive.org. for
treasures of the past.
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