This month, the Fayette County Public Library launches a digital audio book collection allowing cardholders to download audio books from the Internet, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, free of charge. Whether commuting to work or relaxing at home, users can listen to a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books on portable devices, CD players, or via their PCs and laptops.

Listeners of all ages can choose from a selection of over 1,000 titles in fiction, narrative nonfiction, business, biography, self-help, and language instruction. Available titles range from recent bestsellers such as The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life and Nicholas Sparks’ The Lucky One to classics such as Pride and Prejudice and The Call of the Wild. Users may listen to digital audio books on their Windows desktop or laptop computers; burn to CD for playing in the car or on stereo; or transfer to selected portable devices, including Windows Media-compatible MP3 players and iPods. Digital audio books check out for 7 days, incur no overdue fines, and are available for free Internet downloading 24 hours a day through the library’s website, www.fayettecountyga.gov/public_library. The service is limited to those PINES cardholders who are identified in the library computer system with the Fayette County Public Library in Fayetteville as their home library.

In order to borrow digital audio books, users follow the link from the library home page to the Georgia Download Destination site, a starting point shared with other participating PINES libraries. From there, users browse or search the initial selection of 1,010 popular titles, ranging from romance fiction, mysteries, and classics to business, technology, biography, and language instruction. For example, some titles include “Hot, Flat and Crowded” (Thomas Friedman), “The Legs are the Last to Go” (Diahann Carroll), “Ladies of Liberty” (Cokie Roberts), “Honor Bound” (W. E. B. Griffin), “In-Flight Italian”, and “Salvation in Death” (J. D. Robb). Check-out is fast and easy: Fayette County Public Library users simply select “Fayette County” from a drop-down list of libraries, then enter in their PINES card number and their PINES account password. Up to five digital audio books may be on loan at one time. After one week, the materials are automatically checked in and made available for other users. If the requested title is not immediately available, users can place a hold on it and receive email notification when it becomes available.

Downloadable digital audio books have been licensed through OverDrive, Inc., a leader in managing distribution of digitized content utilizing digital rights management technology (DRM) to publishers, retailers, and libraries. Additional information about OverDrive is available at www.overdrive.com.

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