Learn & Play @CML

As you may have experienced in the past few months, interest in eBooks and eReaders have exploded! You’ve probably heard about eReaders and maybe even had a customer or two asking questions about Digital Downloads.

Organizational Development with the assistance of some subject matter experts (SMEs) have created the EReader Learning Road Map. This road map is to help you become familiar with the technology so you can start to assist customers.

We’ve focused on three things:

1. what staff should know about eReaders
2. what staff should be able to do eReaders
3. how staff can help customers with eReaders.

A lot of information is available about eReaders and Digital Downloads and it can be overwhelming to find the information when you most need it. We will link to information we have available throughout  these blog posts.

I came across this entry from the WikiMart (accessible from the staff intranet computers) and thought it was very insightful.  We all need to keep these things in mind:

• It is OK to feel overwhelmed by all of this. We all do!
• We are all in this together.
• We are the information people, not the “fix it” people.
• Helping customers with eReaders and eBooks is going to take an initial investment of time.
• Nobody is expecting you to know everything there is to know about eReaders and eBooks. It’s OK to not know.

I encourage you to read the full entry.

What’s next? Get started on your eReader Learning Road Map by viewing the next post.  All these posts will be linked in order on Learner Web.  There are quizzes to test your knowledge along the way.

We hope this road map helps develop your understanding of eReaders.

Maria shares some details about the eReader Learning Road Map.

Are you ready? Get started!

There are many eReaders available in the market.  Let’s start with some basics during this post.

By the end of this post you will be able to:

• Know common devices and what format it supports
• Know what devices are compatible with Overdrive and what is not.
• Know about the basics of devices
• Know how to read an eBook on a device

An overview of devices can be found in the Getting Started with Digital Downloads. The link is accessible on a staff intranet computers.

Q: Is there a way to know common devices and what format the device supports?

A: Yes!  You can find information about devices from columbuslibrary.org/ereaders . Scroll down a bit or select the device from the drop down menu on the right. Customers can access this information from home.

Q: How do I find which devices are compatible with OverDrive?

A: From https://www.columbuslibrary.org, click on Find out More About eReaders in the eReader box. Then click on Overdrive. On the left menu, select Compatible Devices. https://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/ Review the OverDrive Device Resource Center to see if device is compatible.

You can also find this on the Product Comparison Sheet by clicking on the View all eReaders and compare models link available on each device page. Look for “yes” in the Compatible with Library Card column.

Q: How do I get to know the basics of the devices?

A: The columbuslibrary.org/ereaders is the best place to start. There are seven different devices linked to this page.  The information includes links to the manufacturer’s website which will give operational basics like powering up and navigation controls as well as specific information about using OverDrive with the device.  Customers can access this information as well.

Q: Do I have to know everything about every device?

A: No. You need to know where to find the information so you can assist a customer when they ask. The best way is to hold a device and get some hands-on experience.  A visit to a location with the eReader Kiosk is a great start. Once you play with one device, you’ll be able to spot the similarities with powering up and navigation.

Yes, it can be overwhelming with learning about seven different devices.  Some staff picked one device to learn about in a week.  Some locations have assigned devices to different staff and they become the device “expert” and share the information with others. What has worked with your location?

Q: How do I read an eBook on a device?

A: Each device has its own method. Maria has put a video example up for the Sony PRS 950 device.

Bonus!

Want some additional information? Previous videos were posted about the

Amazon Kindle

Sony Pocket eReader 300

the iPad

the Borders Kobo

Test your knowledge of what you’ve learned.

Up next is ADE.  What is ADE? Keep reading to find out what it is and all sorts of things about it.

So what is ADE? ADE stands for Adobe Digital Editions.  Adobe Digital Editions is software needed for many eReaders so customers can read the digital downloads.  

By the end of this post you will be able to:

• Download an EPUB eBook
• Download ADE
• Create an ADE ID
• Activate a device with ADE
• Describe Adobe Digital Downloads and limitations

There are several steps that must be taken the first time a customer wants to use Adobe Digital Edition (ADE). A customer must create a ADE ID, download and install ADE. This tutorial shows you how. The tutorial is only available on staff intranet computers .

Remember to keep sharing things you find helpful with your co-workers and friends.

So next up is Library’s Digital Downloads.  You have hopefully heard something about it before but we’ll give you a lot of information.

As promised, we are going to learn about downloading books and I didn’t tell you we would even do transferring to a device.

By the end of this post you will be able to:

• Describe the process of downloading an eBook from the library
• Download an eBook from the Digital Downloads
• Transfer an ebook from a computer to a device.

This tutorial will show you five things you need to know.

1. Downloading Adobe Digital Editions (which you learning about in section 3)
2. Downloading an EPUB eBook
3. Returning an EPUB eBook
4. Transferring an EPUB eBook to the Kobo
5. Transferring an EPUB eBook to the Nook

Sneak peek time.  Since you just accomplished being able to download and transfer, sometimes you don’t want those books on your device anymore.  Help with that is coming next.

So did you guess that we would be deleting items. Once an item has expired, it should be removed from the device.

By the end of this post you will be able to:

• Delete an item from a device
• Check-in an item early (this is currently only available for ADE)

As you learned in the video, it is possible to check-in items early.

Deleting an expired eBook from the Sony Reader Library is demonstrated in this video.

What about when something goes wrong?  Basic troubleshooting is coming up next.