Are your eBooks/eAudio holds turning up all at once?

If your holds are turning up all at once you will be happy with Holds Redelivery, a new way to prioritise your reading and listening habits on our Libby and OverDrive apps.

This feature gives you more control over your holds, so you can borrow and read titles when it’s most convenient for you. To support this feature, the automatic hold checkout setting will be removed from our OverDrive collection.

Any current holds will be updated to remove automatic checkout from March 2 2020, meaning you will need to manually borrow tiles now as they become available.

What’s happening? Instead of a title being automatically checked out to you when you may not be ready for it, you’ll now have a few choices.

You can:

1. Borrow it and start reading! You’ll have a 3-day pickup period to open the Libby app and check out your title.

2. If you’re not ready to start reading, you can choose “deliver later” and select a set time period when you’d like the book delivered to you. Once that time period is over, you’ll be next on the list.

What if I forget to pick up my hold? If you forget to borrow your available title during the pickup window, your hold will automatically be set to “deliver later” as a one-time courtesy for 7 days. After 7 days, your hold will be active again and you’ll receive another notification when the next copy is ready to borrow.

How will I know when my book has become available? Don’t worry! You’ll receive a notification from the Libby app.

Go to our OverDrive Help website for more information on this important change or contact us at enquiries@wcl.govt.nz to receive additional assistance from our helpful staff.

The Big Kids’ eBook Read

New Zealand has a fine tradition of children’s literature, with many wonderful authors to sample and enjoy. Did you know many are also available to borrow through our eLibrary?

In December (from the 3rd to the 9th), we’ve joined with Penguin Random House New Zealand and celebrated Wellington author Kate De Goldi to provide unlimited eBook loans of her children’s fiction title, From the cutting room of Barney Kettle!

Reading Resources:

Kate has written a heartfelt author’s letter on the novel’s origins and strong sense of place (it’s set in Christchurch):

Author’s Letter – Big Kids’ eBook Read

For teachers and school librarians, Kate has provided a teacher resource to help prompt student ideas:

Teacher Resource – Barney Kettle

To start reading during this period:

On a smart phone or tablet — download the Libby app to your smart phone or mobile device, add Wellington City Libraries as your library, and log in with your library card number and surname to set up your account. Search for ‘From the cutting room of Barney Kettle’ to borrow your copy and start reading.

Users of computers and eReaders, including the Kobo range of  eReaders — you’re not left out! Find out more about borrowing our eBooks on our Getting Started with our eLibrary page.

From the cutting room of Barney Kettle won the Esther Glenn Award for Junior Fiction in 2016.  Here’s what the judges for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, had to say that year:

Surprising, gripping, heart-breaking and ultimately incredibly moving, this novel stood out right from the start. This book is packed with warmth, wonderful language, rich and witty observations, compelling characters and layers of message and meaning.

And here’s an intriguing, mysterious summary, from the Penguin New Zealand website to peak curiosity:

Meet filmmaker Barney Kettle, who liked to invent stories but found a real one under his nose.

Barney Kettle knew he would be a very famous film director one day, he just didn’t know when that day would arrive. He was already an actual director – he’d made four fifteen-minute films – but so far only his schoolmates and the residents of the High Street had viewed them. Global fame was a little way off. It would come, though. Barney was certain about that …

So begins the manuscript written from the hospital bed of an unnamed man.

[…] He has written so he can remember the inimitable Barney Kettle, filmmaker, part-time dictator, questing brain, theatrical friend; a boy who loved to invent stories but found a real one under his nose; a boy who explored his neighbourhood with camera in hand and stumbled on a mystery that changed everything …

— Penguin New Zealand

For a taste of this award-winning title’s brilliant start, click on the eBook sample below:

Join us as we read this brilliant eBook title together across Wellington in December — at school, at home or in the library, we’ll all be reading together!

Huge thanks to Penguin Random House New Zealand and Kate De Goldi, for your support of this exciting opportunity for Wellingtonians!

Changes to Compact Disc music and audiobook collections

Over the next month, we’re making changes to our Adult CD, Adult Audiobook and Young Adult CD collections. These changes are reflective of changing listening habits for the Compact Disc format, and consistent drops in usage for these collections over recent years. The changes are:

  • Adult CDs – we are removing Adult CDs from all branch libraries, and consolidating them into the CD collection at Central library.
  • Adult Audiobooks – we are removing Adult Audiobooks from branch libraries and consolidating them at Central library. In addition, we are removing the $3.00 rental fee, starting from the 31st of August. If you have a concession card for audiobooks, please talk with staff.
  • Young Adult CDs – all CDs in the Young Adult collections will be removed from all libraries.

These changes will be in place from the 31st of August, providing branch libraries with more display space and the option of promoting other branch collections.

We will continue to support Central library collections for Adult CDs and Audiobooks, with customers being able to reserve titles from the Central library as required.

Please note, these changes do not affect other library Audio Visual collections such as DVDs.

 

Pan Macmillan titles are moving to OverDrive

From the 28th of June, you’ll be able to issue hundreds of new Pan Macmillan titles through our OverDrive eBook service. eBook titles by authors like David Baldacci, Sue Grafton, Ann Cleeves and Andy Griffiths will be available for the first time on OverDrive.

Borrow eBooks

In the past, we’ve hosted Pan Macmillan eBooks through our other supplier of eBooks, BorrowBox. In response to customer demand though, and in an effort to consolidate our eBook collections, we’ve transferred this content across to OverDrive.

From the 26th of June, Pan Macmillan eBooks will no longer be available through BorrowBox.

There’s plenty of amazing and exclusive eAudio content on BorrowBox, so we still encourage you to check in with BorrowBox for new audiobook titles by authors like Lee Child, James Patterson, Eleanor Catton and Andy Griffiths. We’ll also host a smaller collection of eBooks on BorrowBox into the future.

If you’d like to get started with either our OverDrive or BorrowBox eBook and eAudio collections, go to our eLibrary Help page.

For more information or direct help with this change, please leave us a message with our Technical Support form.

eKiosk debuts at Wellington International Airport

Wellington City Libraries have entered into a valuable partnership with Wellington Airport, aimed at promoting our digital collections through the hosting of an OverDrive eKiosk at Wellington International Airport. Our OverDrive selection has over 40,000 eBooks and eAudio titles to choose from and in the last financial year, has increased by over 30%, making it a much-liked and enjoyed collection.

By placing a promotional eKiosk in a busy, prominent location like Wellington Airport, we’re hoping to increase access and exposure to our OverDrive collection with the wider Wellington population.

Through the eKiosk, you can get started with our OverDrive collection through the OverDrive app, search and browse titles, listen to and read, eBook and eAudio samples, and have temporary access to digital titles for a limited time.
By using our eKiosk, you’ll be able to send temporary membership links through either text or email, enabling 3 free downloads to your smart phone or tablet, courtesy of Wellington City Libraries.  After being given temporary access to OverDrive, simply join Wellington City Libraries to gain permanent membership and full borrowing entitlements.

If you’d like to get started with our OverDrive collection (or other eLibrary services) try our eLibrary Help page here, or contact us through our Technical Support link here . We look forward to getting you started!

New OverDrive eBooks site launched

New OD websiteOur eBook and eAudio eBook service OverDrive has been updated to include new features, simplified usage and a brand new design.

You’ll still access WCL’s OverDrive website from the same address on your desktop and mobile device at wcl.overdrive.com. We’ll still provide the same eBook and eAudio content in familiar formats and downloading and streaming options you’re used to.

However, you should notice positive changes:

  • – browsing, subject headings and links to our ‘Kids’ and ‘Teens’ pages are now at the very top of the website
  • – searches now auto complete with suggested options
  • – sign in with your library card and use a simplified account area
  • – availability of eBook and eAudio titles is now clearly labelled

In addition to these changes, there are improvements to renewals, holds and recommendations to the library.

For more information on our new OverDrive website, go to our Help page here, or to watch a video summary of our new OverDrive features click here.

If you need any help, please use our technical support form and we’ll email you a helpful response!

new overdrive