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.  

Cozy up with a magazine from the library

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Everyone knows that you can check out books at the library, but did you know that you can check out magazines?  We have many people who read magazines and newspapers at the Litchfield Library every day.  But if you’d rather take a magazine home with you, you can check out all but the newest issue.  Some of the back issues are underneath the shelves on which the current magazine issues are displayed, and some are in our back room.  Ask a staff member for help if you don’t see what you want when you lift up a magazine shelf.

One magazine that seems like a good candidate to bring home is “American Patchwork and Quilting”.  It includes patterns for quilts, pillows, bags, and other patchwork items. 

One of our most popular magazines is “Consumer Reports”.  You’ll need to ask for all of these issues at the front desk.  You can check out issues that review cars, appliances, computers, and many more items you’ll want to research before you buy.

One of our newest additions is “Food Network Magazine”.  Featuring the stars of the shows on the Food Network, the magazine is full of recipes to try.  This month’s issue has a bacon theme.

Pioneerland Library System offers e-magazines as well as print magazines.  Through our Zinio service, you can download issues of the magazines we subscribe to electronically.  You can even get set up to be notified whenever a new issue is available.  This isn’t like going to a magazine’s website, where you’ll only find highlights of what’s really in the magazine.  It’s the entire issue, with pages looking just like they do in print, but viewable on your computer or tablet.  Some magazines have additional things you can do with the electronic version, like watch a video or listen to a sound clip.

To get to this service, go to www.pioneerland.lib.mn.us/eMagazines.htm.  You’ll need to set up two accounts online and have an active library card to do so, but the instructions are on our website for you to follow step-by-step.  It’s free to use.

Pioneerland subscribes to 34 e-magazines, including “Country Living”, “Do It Yourself”, “Eating Well”, “Macworld”, and “National Geographic Interactive”.

Read magazines in whichever way you want: electronically, downloaded from our website; in print, checked out and read at home; or in print, read in a library easy chair underneath our antique clock. 

Speaking of the clock, I’d like to thank Greg Heath for donating his time and expertise to repair the clock that hangs in our reading area.  It’s a beautiful timepiece from the late nineteenth century, older even than the original Carnegie library.  Take a look the next time you’re in to read the paper!

Do your taxes or read a magazine -- which would you rather do?

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

We will be getting tax forms at the library.  This is the answer to a very frequent question we’ve been getting.  The fiscal cliff you heard so much about at the end of last year was resolved, at least for now, in the first days of the year when the House of Representatives passed the Senate’s compromise deal and the President signed it into law.  Once that was done, the IRS was able to create tax instructions based on the new law.  Because of this, tax season is delayed this year; it begins January 30. Various minor schedules have been arriving at the library.  We have gotten an email from the IRS saying that some of the major forms and instructions have been shipped to us.  I am hopeful that we will have them by the time you read this article.  Once we have them, we will set up a table in the library’s entry with the forms and booklets for you to take home.

After  you’ve been working on your taxes for a while, you’ll need a break.  Take a look at our brand-new magazine database, Zinio, where you can read popular magazines cover to cover on your tablet, phone, or PC.  The pages look just like they do in the print version, with photos, advertisements, and all.  Some are even enhanced with audio or video features. 

You can get to this service by going to www.pioneerland.lib.mn.us and clicking on the Zinio button.  You’ll see instructions for using it and a link to follow to get to the magazine website.  You’ll need to have an active Pioneerland library card in good standing.  To begin, you’ll set up an account with your library card number, email address, a password you create, and your name.  You’ll get a set-up email from Zinio with a link to follow. Then you’ll be able to view the titles Pioneerland offers, but to actually view the issues, you’ll also need to set up an account with Zinio.  If you follow the instructions on our website step-by-step, you shouldn’t have a problem.

You can view the issues online using your web browser, or you can download issues to your device.  Downloading may work well for those of you who do not have high-speed internet at home: bring your Kindle Fire or iPad to the library to download the latest issue of Apple Magazine or Bicycling, then read it at your leisure at home or on your vacation.

There are two differences from our e-book service that I think you’ll appreciate.  Multiple people can read issues at one time, so there’s no waiting for someone else to return the one you want.  And you never have to return them.  If you want to download an issue of Do It Yourself and keep it on your tablet for months so that you can work on the projects, you can do that.  You won’t return the magazines, but you can delete downloaded issues if you want to free up space on your device.  And as long as you have internet access, you don’t need to download them at all; you can simply view all of the magazines we subscribe to, currently 100 titles.

Back issues are not available.  All of our digital magazines will be available only from the starting date of our subscription to this service. 

Some very popular magazines are not available through Zinio because their publishers are not offering them in this format, including People and Sports Illustrated.  Newsweek is available.  It has stopped publishing in print and is only available electronically now.  Other popular magazines we offer electronically include National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, Taste of Home, Reader’s Digest, and Woman’s Day. 

Come to the library to pick up your tax forms in February or afterwards.  Or come to the library website to read some fun or informative magazines. We strive to provide you the materials you want in the format you want to use.

Shop online, help grow the library's e-book collection

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Have you finished your Christmas shopping?  I have not, but I'd better finish it soon.  Online shopping is the friend of people who are busy, so I expect to do much of my shopping that way.

Did you know that your Amazon and Barnes & Noble purchases online can benefit our library?  Through our e-book service’s WIN program, if you click through to Amazon or Barnes & Noble’s website from our site, we’ll get a credit toward the purchase of e-books. 

Here’s how you do it: go to our Overdrive e-book and audiobook site.   Look for the sidebar on the left that says “Before you shop… Help our library WIN!”  If you click on “Learn More”, you’ll come to a screen that says “Click here first, help our libraryWIN”.  Then you can choose to go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books On Board, Shop Indie Bookstores, or Powell’s Books. 

When you click through that part of our website to those retail websites, a small portion of your purchase price gets turned into e-book credit for our library system.  We can use those funds to buy e-books that you can borrow from us.

If you get one of those shiny new devices for Christmas, an e-reader, tablet, or smartphone, you can borrow e-books and downloadable audios from us.  We have more all the time.  Pioneerland reduced administrative expenses this past year and has put a portion of those funds into creating a bigger e-book collection to meet popular demand. 

Another wonderful digital collection is coming in 2013.  We will be getting electronic magazines that you can view on a tablet, smartphone, or PC.  These will be the full magazines, laid out just as they are on print pages.  We will still get our print magazines in the library, but this will expand the titles we can offer you and allow you to view them anywhere that you can use a computer or your wireless device.  When you’re passing time in the airport or sitting at your fireside on a snowy night, you’ll be able to get the latest issue of magazines like Field and Stream, House Beautiful, and Consumer Reports. 

In fact, Newsweek is halting its print issues in the new year, so the electronic version will be the only one anyone will be able to read.  We will have it available in our electronic magazine service.

The digital magazines will only be available on devices that can use apps and/or get on the internet at large.  This means that straight e-readers that are not wifi-enabled won’t be able to get to these magazines.  They will work on iPads, iPhones, Blackberry Playbooks, Android phones and tablets, and Nooks and Kindles that can browse the web, as well as any PC with an internet connection.

We don’t have a date yet when this service will be available to us, but I thought you might like to know this is coming as you make choices about electronic devices for Christmas gifts.  Some people who don’t enjoy reading e-books find the thought of browsing magazines online more appealing.

I hope you will have a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.  Merry Christmas, everyone!