Listen to Audio Books on Your Next Car Ride

As you prepare for a long car trip or just need to get your kids off the television, video games or computer, there is a way to enjoy books without ever going to the library.  Books on tape can be downloaded right onto your laptop, iPod, iPhone or other listening device, through OverDrive, a global eBook and audiobook distributor.   

Here’s how it works: 

Go to your local library’s web site, http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/
From the menu click on Overdrive, it should be on the main page and could be labeled audio books or e books. 
Download the OverDrive program onto your computer.  (The overdrive system uses the Microsoft® Windows Media Audio format)

Then begin searching for books you’d like to listen to and place them in your “cart”. 
**note - not all books or current releases are available on this system, so you will need to search for books under the overdrive program and NOT from the library’s card catalogue. 
 
You can check out as many as 10 titles at a time.
When you check out, you select how long you’d like to have the book(s), 7, 14 or 21 days. 
 If the book you’d like isn’t available, place a hold on it and you’ll be notified via e mail when your book becomes available.

Upon checking out, the selected title(s) download to your computer.
Then, if you want, you can transfer it to your particular mobile device. 
When your time with the book has elapsed, the title will simply "disappear" from your device.  No need to worry about overdue charges or trips to the library.
And if you need to more time because you haven’t finished listening to it, simply go into the system to renew it.    

Did you know that you can belong to multiple library systems?  You can get a free library card from most local jurisdictions - DC, Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria.  So if one library system doesn’t have a particular book you’d like, check out another system. 

The best part is that this service, as with all other library services, is FREE.
But an even better feature is that you can use this service whenever it’s convenient for you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

I use this program/system all time, making sure we always have an audio book on someone’s iPod for car rides or for down time. My oldest uses this service to listen to English/Literature books throughout the school year.  And my younger child uses it for pleasure reading (listening). He has dyslexia and reading is extremely difficult for him. His comprehension level is much higher than his fluency, so ebooks allows him to "get" books that are of interest to him and on his comprehension level.