Beginning August 16, the Darien Library will expand its audiobook collection to include downloadable audiobooks from OverDrive. OverDrive is a large database of downloadable audiobooks compatible with iPods and a wide variety of other MP3 players. Providing access to popular new titles as well as classics, OverDrive will be accessible to all Darien Library patrons. Each user may download up to 10 audiobooks at a time. The audiobooks "check out " for 21 days and are automatically returned at the end of the borrowing period. Although you cannot renew an OverDrive audiobook, you may check it out again if no one else is waiting for it. In addition, you can rate audiobooks and share suggestions with friends on email, Twitter, and/or Facebook.

Before you can download audiobooks from OverDrive, you will need to download and install some free software--OverDrive Media Console. The download takes just minutes, and the software makes transferring, burning (when permitted by publisher), and playing audiobooks fast and easy.

We hope you're as excited about this new addition to our audiobook collection as we are! Come in and let us show you how it works.

See you @ the Library!

Beginning July 1, users of the Darien Library's public computers will be given 5 free black and white (BW) printouts each day. Any additional computer printouts will cost .10/page for BW and .25/page for color.

Prices for photocopying remain the same: .10/page for BW and .25/page for color.

If you have any questions about this change, please let us know.

See you @ the Library!

APM in So/Ho

If you've stopped by our Small Office/Home Office Center on the Library's Lower Level recently, you may have noticed a new addition--our Automated Payment Machine, or APM, for short. Yes, it may look like a coin machine, but it's actually much more sophisticated than your standard coin machine. With our new APM, you can deposit money to your printing account and/or pay down your fines. The APM accepts nickels, dimes, and quarters, and paper money up to $20. With a touchscreen interface, the APM is easy to use, and it is equipped with a receipt printer, so you will receive a record of every transaction. On July 1st, we will add two more APMs: One to the left of the Welcome Desk on the first floor and another adjacent to the Finance printer/copier on the second floor. We hope these new additions make your use of our public computers and printers easier and more efficient. As always, our staff is on hand to assist you with whatever you may need.

 See you @ the Library

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

Ah, June. A great month for weddings, graduations, anniversary parties, family reunions, and other social gatherings. Events such as these often call for a colorful banner to herald the occasion. But printing a banner can be difficult and expensive. No worries. The Darien Library is here to help. Our hp designjet printer, located in our Small Office Home Office (SoHo) center on the Lower Level, can print out banners up to 24 inches wide and as long as you want. The preferred file formats are .pdf and .jpg. We charge $2/square foot for banner printing and offer 24-hour turnaround.

Have something in mind you'd like us to print for you? Just email Judy Sgammato at jsgammato@darienlibrary.org or call 203-669-5256. We'll be glad to lend a hand!

See you @ the Library!

Photo from The Library of Congress

The Darien Library's Spring 2010 Adult Technology Classes begin on Tuesday, March 2. We're excited about our spring offerings and hope you are, too. For those of you who missed our registration lottery, you're in luck. There are still a few seats available in some of our classes. We will list openings here over the next few days. If you'd like to sign up, call our Help Desk at 203-669-5238 or email Judy at jsgammato@darienlibrary.org.

Current Openings

• BlackBerry Boot Camp, Tuesday, May 4, 6:30-8:30 p.m. -- 3 seats

 See you @ the Library!

Photo courtesy of flickr user jurvetson

With May comes an onslaught of events, from crafts fairs to carnivals, art exhibits to outdoor theatre. It’s so hard to keep track of everything that’s happening! No worries! The Darien Library has the answer. Our Community Calendar allows you to keep track of events for adults, teens, and children taking place in the Library, in Darien, and in lower Fairfield County. And because it's a Google Calendar, you can automatically save events to your own personal Google Calendar with just a few clicks. If you aren't familiar with the Community Calendar, we invite you to take a look. And if you have an event of interest to the Darien Community, please let us know. We would be happy to add your event to the Community Calendar. Send an email with the Who, What, When, and Where to Judy at jsgammato@darienlibrary.org or call her at 203-669-5256.

See you @ the Library!

Photo courtesy of flickr user Guillermo Esteves

With the growing popularity of eReaders, including Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook, Sony's Reader, and Apple's iPad, to name a few, more and more of our members are looking for free sources of audiobooks and eBooks. If you're looking for the latest best-seller, these sites won't work for you, but if you're a student, researcher, or general reader looking for a classic piece of literature or, perhaps, a particular issue of Life Magazine from the year you were born, you're in luck. Enjoy!

•  AudioBooksForFree - Audiobooks only. Children's and classics. Filters available to narrow your search. Preloaded audiobooks, hard drives, CDs/DVDs available for purchase.
• Escholarship - Open-access scholarly publishing site from the University of California. Good for scholarly research. Downloads in pdf format.
• Google Books - Older issues of magazines, non-fiction (including health, self-help, and computers), and classics. Good for students. Log in to your Google account to create a personal bookshelf and to share your picks with friends.
• Internet Archive -Videos, music, books; classical literature. Includes a database of federal cases. Check out the WayBack Machine to explore archived web content.
• ManyBooks - Over 26,000 free ebooks, available for download in 25 different formats.
• Memoware - Eclectic mix. Good basic information on eBook formats.
• Online Books Page - University of Pennsylvania-sponsored site. Over 35,000 works in English. To be included, a work must meet 3 criteria: be legitimately available for free; be full-text; and be available in a stable, well-formatted standard format (html, pdf, plain text)
• Oxford Text Archive - Thousands of scholarly texts in over 25 languages.
• Project Gutenberg - E-books and audiobooks. Think classics--Austen, Dickens, Thackeray. Download entire CDs/DVDs. Digitized sheet music, too.
• Scribd -Social networking publishing site; original content.
• Wikibooks - free textbooks and cookbooks.

See you @ the Library!

Image courtesy of flickr user bjmccray

We are pleased to announce the return of wireless printing to the Darien Library. Laptop users with machines running Windows XP or Vista will once again be able to print wirelessly from their computers when in the Library. Our general printing guidelines will apply: Each user will receive 20 free pages of printing a day (b/w or color). Once you've used up your free pages, you may add additional funds to your printing account at the Help Desk on the Lower Level or at the staff desk in the Reference Room on the Second Floor. Additional pages may be printed at the rate of .10/page for b/w; .25/page for color.

In order to print wirelessly, you will need to download and install a small piece of software. Simply click on this link, and then click on the "Save File" button to save the install file to your computer. Depending on your settings, the install file will be saved either to your Desktop or to your Downloads folder in your My Documents folder.

Once the file has been downloaded, navigate to the downloaded file and double click on it. Click on "Run" to install the file. Once the software has been installed, a small window will pop up in the bottom right corner of your screen. To connect to our wireless printing module, click once on "Start Print Session." You will be prompted to enter your 14-digit library card number. Then click on "Soho Wireless" in the "Where would you like to Print?" and click OK. Two printers will be added to your computer: SOHO BW and SOHO COLOR. Once these printers appear in your list of printers, you're ready to go.

Open up the file you want to print, click on your Print option, select one of the two SOHO printers. Then click OK. When your job has been sent, a small window will appear on your screen telling you that you can print out the job in SoHo. It will also tell you the cost of the job.

To print out your job, go to the Print Release Station in our Small Office/Home Office copy center (SoHo) on the Library's Lower Level. Begin by entering your library barcode. Then click on "Search Print Documents." A list of jobs waiting to be printed will appear. Click on the job you want to print, and then click on the "Print Job" button. You must print one job at a time. If you decide to delete a job, click on it and then click the "Delete Job" button. Be sure to click "I'm Finished" when you're done. Your job should be waiting for you on either the SOHO BW or SOHO COLOR printer. If you need assistance, please speak to the staff member on duty at the Help Desk in the Power Library just outside SoHo.

B&N Nook e-Reader

Just in time for spring, we've added a Kindle DX and a Nook to our collection of e-readers. Along with our two first-edition Kindles, the Kindle DX (with its larger 9.7-in screen) and the Nook (Barnes and Noble's e-book reader) are perfect for taking with you on a college visit, spring vacation, or daily commute. Amazon's Kindle Store and Barnes and Noble offer a wide selection of e-publications; you can read the daily newspaper, catch up on your favorite magazine, or read the latest fiction or non-fiction best-seller. You can choose from among the over 20 titles we've already purchased for our e-readers, or request a new title at checkout.  We'll download 1 new title per checkout for free. This means that each time you check out an e-reader, you'll be entitled to a new download. Both the Kindles and the Nook offer one-touch navigation. You can set bookmarks and enlarge the type size for easier reading. Our e-readers circulate for 2 weeks and may be renewed once if no one is waiting. Wondering what all the fuss is about? Reserve an e-reader today by calling our Help Desk at 203-669-5238.

See you @ the Library!