Kindle Books Now Free at the Rochester Hills Public Library

Digital books have taken off and the library has become a great place to find eBooks at no charge.  Amazon’s Kindle has now joined the Nook, Sony Readers, Kobo and Pandigital readers, and many mobile such as Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, iPod of portable devices that allow for borrowing library books.   Amazon and OverDrive, the Rochester Hill’s Public Library’s supplier of eBooks, are now offering Kindle Books as part of the library’s downloadable book service. 

“This is very exciting news,” said library director Christine Lind Hage.  “We are so happy that we can now offer this free service to Kindle owners.”  In the past it was Amazon that prohibited the free downloads from the library’s vender Overdrive.  OverDrive currently hosts more than 650,000 premium digital titles from more than 1,000 publishers, including Random House, HarperCollins, BBC Audiobooks America, Harlequin, and Bloomsbury. Their digital distribution services are utilized by more than 15,000 libraries, schools, and colleges worldwide. For two consecutive years, OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry.

Residents of Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township who have a Rochester Hills Public Library card are able to search the digital book catalog of over 3,000 Kindle titles that include bestsellers, romance, mystery, nonfiction, teen and children’s books and check out books for a specific lending period.  Once a title is checked out, customers can choose to send it to their Kindle and will be redirected to Amazon.com to download the book.  “No charge, no overdue fines, and the ability to check out and download 24/7! It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Sheila Konen, manager of Adult Services at RHPL.  Any generation Kindle device or free Kindle Application for Android, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, Blackberry or Windows Phone can be used to read books checked out from the library.  This digital collection is a collaboration with the Metro Net Consortium which includes 6 other Wayne and Oakland county public libraries and provides access to downloadable eBooks and audio books to cardholders.    To start checking out eBooks from the Rochester Hills Public Library, grab your library card and go to http://ebooks.metronet.lib.mi.us .  Got questions?  ,Ask the librarians at the Adult Services Desk at 248-650-7130 or adult@rhpl.org.

Anyone who lives in Rochester, Rochester Hills or Oakland Township is eligible for a free library card.  The Library is located in downtown Rochester off of University Drive and 3 blocks east of Main Street.  The library is open from 9 – 9 Monday through Thursday, 9 – 6 on Fridays and Saturday and Sundays from 1 – 6.  The library’s website (www.rhpl.org) has information on how to register for a card and access all of the library’s services.

About Tom and Ann Gendich

Founders of Rochester Media. Looking to provide great local news to all people in and around Rochester and Rochester Hills. Send them a note at info@rochestermedia.com.

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