I read on another forum that the Phildephia Free Library will change some of it's lending rules. The announcement is Here.

I think the main change mentioned was reducing the 10 loan limit now to 6.

Darn, I wonder if that 14 day time limit applies to audio books too?

If you get the audiobook from overdrive then yes it will apply too, they do state ALL formats. But you should be able to email them and ask.

Well I am getting ready to borrow an audio book, so I expect I'll find out.

I asked them via the online ask a librarian chat and just got directed to there website where I could not find the answer, so my library director has emailed theirs saying it was rather hard to find information..LOL

Yes I got a 2 week return date.

Their fee went up too.  I paid 35 last year and this year it was $50 to renew.  Still a great deal though as they have a lot more than my local library does.  I'm ok with the reduced borrow times, especially if it reduces the wait on some of the longer WL lines. 

Brooklyn Public Library is $50 as well. Totally worth it. Buck a week for as many as I can read.

hmm, i hope Brooklyn doesn't raise their rates now!  they also have the 2 week return time, but much larger limits on checkouts.

did FLP reduce the number of books you could waitlist as well as borrow?

I'm a FLP borrower of eBooks through Overdrive and there are many complaints on the  FLP blog about reducing the borrowing periods from 21 days  to 14. While it is true that many books can be read in 14 days, many others, such as lengthy non fiction history books cannot easily be read in 14 days. For me, the 21 day borrowing period was a big attraction, especially as I am now taking lots of Coursera courses ( go to coursera.org) which are free online courses on many subjects including history. The courses have assigned readings and it is a gift when I can locate the readings on a free eBook platform like FLP (I work in Philly and therefore have access to its library). Plus, I am intrigued by the high number of titles available via FLP as opposed to my local county library. But for myself, I would rather prefer that FLP keep the 21 day borrowing period and find other ways to be equatable. After all, speedy readers (and I know there are many of you in PBS) who can finish a book in 14 days can always do so and return the book early even if the borrowing period is 21 days.

just my 2 cents

Janet E

I can never remember which has the 21 day option - usually a week is long enough for me unless I check out 3-4 books - but I can see some needing longer. too bad they can't give a 21 day option in place of checking out more books - like limit number to 3 books for 21 day checkouts instead of 6. I have 3 local libraries and one only has a 5 item checkout policy for overdrive.the other 2 allow 10 items each.

I will probably renew both FLP and Brooklyn - both have diffrent books I want to eventually read and hopefully by paying the out of state fee it will help keep them in business so to speak and buying more books.

Susanna- Not that easy to do, most library os does not have the ability to handle that, nor does Overdrive.  Plus patron would complain when they want to switch from one to the other and not remember what they've chosen.

Let me just ask this seriously- is there really a reason to have the option of checking out 15 books for 21 days? Are there really that many times in life when one is away from their laptop ? Can't you check out 5, return them, and check out 5 more? Seriously- even if I were away on vacation for a week, I could check out 5 and if I read all of those, then read whatever else is on my ereader until I got home.

The only books that I have the option of returning early are the ones I've checked out but haven't downloaded yet.  Once they are downloaded, it takes away my ability to return anything early on both my home library system and FLP.  I would love this option.
 

The only books that I have the option of returning early are the ones I've checked out but haven't downloaded yet.  Once they are downloaded, it takes away my ability to return anything early on both my home library system and FLP.  I would love this option.

assuming you're using a PC or Mac and your library uses Overdrive, and i know the FLP does for most things, you should be able return most ebooks early.  for ADOBE EPUB books you can return them early by going into ADE on your computer, scroll over the book, and click the little arrow that shows up to the left and choose Return Borrowed Item.  for Kindle items borrowed, you can return those early from 'Manage My Kindle' on amazon.  the OPEN EPUB or PDF ones can't be returned early unless you haven't downloaded them, so i try to remember to always set those to a 7 day checkout.  (since there's no DRM, you can read those later, though you're not supposed to.)

the FLP Freading thing uses ADE too, so those should all be able to be returned early too.

if you're using the Overdrive app, or audio books, then i don't have any experience with that.

it would be idiotic for a library app not to have a checkin button *somewhere*, but i know the 3M PC App didn't and i have to go to the website, or the app on my tablet, to return books early to them.

hi all: i am new to this site/forum. i just started borrowing audio books from our public library, new york city, it is so exciting not to schelp the cds home and back. 

i know i could google and find some answers but i thought of asking you if there are sites where you guys borrow ebooks, music cds, even movies for free. i came across one,

Project Gutenberg: Free ebooks

thank you, 

oh, hi ellen. thank you for responding. i am new to this site and even didn't know how to get back to this thread and check on any incoming messages/answers. today i did some research on the nypl and i bookmarked so many audio, movies, music items! there are loads of them. i love books, but i more and more feel they will be soon obsolete. apart from the cuddling part, when you sit with children and hug them and read to them. i don't know if that's feasible holding a delicate tablet? anyway, i am so glad i stepped into the future, which for you guys is the present :)

i have a brookyln library card too. free. i don't know if they charge for downloads. i'll check it out. and the other thing with the songs i saw that today ;) so thank you. i'll send this as a private message too since i don't know if it reaches you, or what's the protocol. ella

hi Ella, for free ebooks i've found libraries to be the most useful.  if you're in New York, then you've already got free access to some *great* libraries - both NYPL and the Brooklyn library.  i pay $50 a year to get access to the Brooklyn library because their collection is so good.  for ebooks in addition to the Overdrive system, there's also the 3M system, where a *lot* of Penguin new releases show up regularly.

[and dang, a quick check shows NYPL already has some of the tasty 1/7 releases in their 3M system, but Brooklyn doesn't yet.  maybe in the morning.]

NYPL also has access to Freegal, which lets you download songs free every week.  movies, i don't know much about borrowing those digitally.