Freegal: Free, Legal Music from Your Library

Have you ever tried to find "free" music online? Typically, you have to sign up for something you don't want, pirate the music from somebody, or get a bunch of free viruses instead of free music. But, I have a solution for you, as long as you have a library card =D

The solution is called Freegal, and its short for free, legal music, and that is exactly what it is.

First of all, Freegal, gives you access to the music of over 10,000 labels, most prominently Sony Music. Now, that doesn't mean it will have every song you could possibly want, but it does have a lot of them. In fact, I'm typically impressed with the amount of songs they actually do have.

Second of all, the music is completely free of cost (unless you are the library entity paying for the service which we already have) and DRM (digital rights management or that annoying thing that won't let you put YOUR music on multiple computers). Each song comes in MP3 format, and is super easy to download.

The only catch included is that each library card only gets 3 downloads a week. But, 3 free songs a week with no DRM, no cost, and no worry about spam or viruses?? Sign me up!! And actually that is the other nice thing. The only login is your library card number, and nothing else. So if you don't have a library card, get one, and if you do have one, start getting your free music.

P.S. Freegal will only work for those patrons that have a CIN (Cooperative Information Network) card, which pretty much covers the majority of Northern Idaho. There are a lot of other library systems that have Freegal, so if you aren't in North Idaho, check out your library and see if they offer the service as well.

Koha: Your New Library Catalog

It has finally happened! The Cooperative Information Network (CIN), the bigger network that the Community Library Network is a part of, just got a new catalog, which means we have a new catalog :)

The system is called Koha, and it is taken care of by ByWater Solutions. But, that isn't what you are interested in. You would probably like to know how it is different. "Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes, volunteers, and support companies from around the world."

What does that mean for you? It means you have more control of your catalog experience. Koha allows you to create lists of books you want to check out, put holds on, or just keep track of. It allows you to create RSS feeds on new books, and also to keep a reading history of what you have read. You can create a private list of things you want to read, or make the list public so others can see your suggestions.

Another cool feature is you can limit your searches to items that are available right now. That means you don't have to click on each individual record to see if you can actually go grab it on the shelf.

There are plenty of other awesome things, but there is one more I want to point out. With our previous catalog, you had to select a specific copy of a book to put a hold on it. Now, you can place a "Next Available Copy" hold, and no matter where it is in the network, the next available copy will be heading your way.

Even though change is always hard, and there are definitely some things I'm getting used to, I'm excited about this new system, and how it will be used in the future!

E-Books: Here we Go!

Hey everybody :)
Amazingly, I'm posting a Techno Tuesday kind of post on a Tuesday. Oh ya!
This time around, I wanted to let you know that the Community Library Network at Hayden now has e-books available. That's right! The Cooperative Information Network, 23 public, school, and medical libraries that share information (the Hayden Library is a part of the network), are making e-books available to anyone with a CIN library card (for those scratching their heads, any Hayden Library card is a CIN library card).
So if you have a Kindle, Nook, iPAD, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, or any other number of e-book readers, you can check out your e-books today!
Go to communitylibrary.net and click on "CIN Digital Downloads" on the left hand column,
or click here.