Montville Library Will Soon Offer eBooks

is making an effort to cater to tech savvy readers as it moves toward offering eBooks in the near future.

Library Director Allan Kleiman spoke about the initiative during the Aug. 13 Montville Township Library Board of Trustees meeting. He said about half of the eBooks available will be for the Nook and half will be for the Kindle, while eBooks will also be available for iPad owners.

In addition to offering the eBooks, the library will also help educate patrons on using the new eReader technologies.

"We're going to start doing some classes in the fall," Kleiman said.

Board Trustee Dave Dalia inquired about how the library will keep track of "checked out" books on electronic devices. He asked whether there is a limited amount of time patrons are able to store the books. Kleiman said the eBooks would be registered with library card numbers and patrons would be able to check out a limited number of books at a time.

"If you return it, then you can borrow another item," Kleiman said.

Additionally, patrons will be able to choose whether to check out the items for seven days or an extended 14 days.

Similar to traditional books, if an eBook is already checked out, a patron may have to get on a waiting list to be able to check out the item they want. The most popular items may have a longer wait than others, but Kleiman said there will be no shortage of eBooks to choose from.

The library is still considering which company to contract with for the eBook service in which the library pays a subscription to be able to rent out the eBooks.