Audiobooks!

For those who are upset that NetLibrary doesn't work with I Pods (which makes them pretty useless for me since I don't own another MP3 player or an old-school Discman), I found that there are a wealth of I Pod-compatible books on Overdrive (through the Madison Public Library system). I found the tutorial did a great job of explaining the convoluted downloading /registration process for the software- I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, but not particularly patient. The amount of Spanish-language titles excited me-far more were available this way than I could access through a single branch.

What surprised me about Overdrive was that, just like print, only a certain number can be accessed at a time. For example, the hold list for the newest Dan Brown novel is 191 patrons! I was also surprised that when I accessed NetLibrary through the UW system, I could only get access to e-books. I imagine it must cost extra to make audiobooks available through our system, and the potential use isn't high enough to justify it, especially with the options in the Madison Public system. I notice this feeling with some of the reference requests I've had-it's hard to imagine the concept of restrictions and half-access- I've been trained into this "click and get" mentality like most people my age, and it's hard to articulate the many good reasons why barriers are put in the way. It's...unpleasant to explain the concept of embargoes to someone who needs that article tonight. That's one of the things I appreciate about the resources we've been trying out here-everyone has equal access to them and they're making things more transparent for the user.

Discovery of the week:
www.pandora.com

Through the beauty of this site (where you customize "stations" based on favorite artists and your own preferences), I have created the perfect study stations. (if you use Pandora, Ray LaMontagne and Patty Griffin make for pretty consistent stations-it's harder when the artist you selected changes their style a lot)