This Christmas, my five-year-old son received a tablet designed for kids.
As I was loading it on Christmas morning with learning games and interactive books, I couldn’t help but think of how different Christmas morning was seven years ago when my oldest son was five. That morning I spent the time assembling a dinosaur mountain playset that had several tiny pieces that needed to be put together before dinosaurs and cavemen could do battle. How things have changed.
Seven years ago, I couldn’t have purchased a tablet for my son, and definitely not a tablet designed just for kids, because tablets were not available. In a few short years, tablets have gone from being used by less than 1 percent of the U.S. adult population to being used by more than 42 percent of that population. New figures will be available in January 2015 from the Pew Research Center and it is expected that more than 50 percent of the U.S. adult population will own a tablet device. The number of users will only continue to grow.
Perhaps you or someone in your household woke up Christmas morning to a new tablet device. This is the new way we access information and entertainment. Recognizing these changes, over the past year the library has added new services specifically for tablets and other mobile devices.
One of the most exciting of these new services is Hoopla Digital. Hoopla provides electronic access to thousands of movies, full music albums and audiobooks. The service provides everything from best-sellers and blockbusters to niche and hard-to-find movies, artists and authors. Some of the most popular movies on hoopla this year were “The King’s Speech,” “Agent Fox,” “Curious George 2,” and “Hanna.” You can view these and more by accessing hoopla from the library’s website.
Another new service that was added at the library this year was OverDrive eBooks. For the past two years the library has provided eBooks through Freading and the 3M Cloud Library. These services were good, but were not compatible with every type of tablet and eReading device. OverDrive is easy to use, works on any type of table and mobile device, has a wide selection of New York Times Bestsellers and popular authors, and now carries videos as well. With a collection of over 5,000 books, you are sure to find something that interests you.
And while OneClickdigital audio and Zinio digital magazines were not added this past year, they are worth mentioning because they provide additional services to tablets and other mobile devices. OneClickdigital audio provides hundreds of unique digital audio books; Zinio digital magazines provides access to more than 100 different magazines. These digital audio books and digital magazines can be directly downloaded onto tablets and other mobile devices to be used when you do not have an Internet or data connection.
One advantage of all these services is their portability. Last October my wife traveled to New York City. Before returning home she checked a book out from the Sweetwater County Library System to read on the plane. It is amazing that from over 2,000 miles away she could borrow a book from her local library.
Another advantage of these services is they are available 24-seven. The digital library is never closed. Tablets and the services provided for them make your public library available day and night from anywhere in the world. You literally have the library in your hands any time you want.
As we begin the New Year, I’d encourage you to explore hoopla, OverDrive, OneClickdigital audio books and Zinio digital magazines on your tablet or other mobile device. Begin by visiting the library’s website at http://www.sweetwaterlibraries.com. Then look for links to these four services in the middle of the page.
If you need assistance, contact our friendly staff. We’d be happy to get you setup. The world is changing and with it your public library. We are expanding our services to make sure you have library materials no matter how you choose to access the library. So grab your card and we will see you online.
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