The long wait is finally over and Canadians who want to access free eBooks with minimal difficulty has finally arrived. Starting today, Canadians can now borrow over 23,000 free titles via Overdrive and Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg offers a wellspring of public domain and royalty free books. Overdrive mainly takes the best, most well known, and most popular and bundles it into their content delivery network. Memorable titles, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and Changeling and Other Stories by Donn Byrne, plus Canadian-specific titles like A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway by Harold Adams Innis, are available.
These new books will be instantly available without going through waiting lists or holds. The books you download are more or less yours to keep. They do not count towards your checkout limit and do not expire, although they do count towards the library circulation system.
What do you need to access these books from your local library? Well firstly verify your branch has digital lending and that they have Overdrive as a partner. Many public libraries in Canada offer this system, but not all. You also need to signup for the service and your library card grants you instant access. Finally, you need an e-reader that is capable to read the EPUB format, which is the standard ebook format. Most popular readers such as the Kobo Touch, Nook, Aluratek, and Sony line devices all support it.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
