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216 N Marshall Ave

Litchfield MN 55355

(320)693-2483

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While all Pioneerland Library System buildings remain closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Curbside Pick-up of library items is available. You may place items on hold using the online catalog. Library staff will call you to schedule a pickup time once your hold is ready. Pickup days/times vary by location. Please contact your library if you have questions or need assistance in using this service.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Overdrive now providing our e-magazines

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

We have a new source for electronic magazines and newspapers, and I hope you’ll like the change. 
Until recently, Pioneerland Library System used to get e-magazines through Zinio.  If you’re a regular user of those, you’ll notice that you won’t be able to check those out with your library card anymore.  We now have a contract with Overdrive, the company that provides our e-books.  Pioneerland is offering 41 popular magazines and newspapers.

To find them, go to our Overdrive site, the same way you would for e-books, and you’ll now see magazines at the top of the available items.  Or you can go to our library catalog and click on “Download eMagazines” on the bottom left of the page to see only the magazines, not books. 
For a guide to how to check these out and download them, look for the link at the top of the e-books webpage.  It says “We’ve got periodicals!  Learn more here.”  If you click on that link, you’ll get a step-by-step guide on how to use these new e-magazines.

The most important thing to know is that these magazines come in Nook format, which is the Barnes & Noble electronic format.  This means you need a Nook tablet or a Nook app to get them, as well as a Barnes & Noble account.  The app and the account are free, and borrowing the magazines is free, too. 

These magazines do not currently work on a Kindle, which is an Amazon device.  This may change in the future. 

If you have an iPad, iPhone, Android device, or another device that is not a Nook or a Kindle, go to your app store, search for the free Nook reading app, and install it on your device.  You can also get the Nook app for Windows 8 computers, so that you can read these on your laptop or desktop computer. Once you have the software, go to our Overdrive website and choose a magazine to send to the Nook app.

A few things happen the first time you check out a magazine.  The app will ask you to acknowledge that you need to link it to your Barnes & Noble account.  You’ll need to put in your library card number.  Then you’ll need to sign in with your Barnes & Noble account, or create one, and grant access to it.  You won’t have to do all of this again once you get it set up. 

At this point, the magazine will be sent to your Nook account.  Barnes & Noble offers in-store support for checking out these magazines, so you can visit the St. Cloud store or another location if you need tech support.

E-magazines are different than e-books, in that multiple people can check out an issue at one time, and you never have to return an e-magazine.  You can’t go back and get older issues of these magazines, only the current issue, but once you have one you can keep it on your device as long as you want. 


Sometimes you can use the library from the comfort of home.  Borrow current issues of National Geographic, USA Today, Readers Digest, and many more, just by using the library through your tablet or phone.