Listen up! Downloadable books for everyone

We currently own more than 4,500 titles on audio cassette or compact disc. Our shelves are overflowing. But we are reluctant to “weed” because our audio book collection is so popular and so heavily used.

So what’s a library to do? Based on patron requests and comments from a user survey, we decided to invest in online downloadable audio books. We chose OverDrive as our vendor because they have the largest selection of bestsellers and popular titles available for purchase. And to make it an affordable investment, we partnered with Handley Regional Library which serves Winchester, Frederick County and Clarke County. Currently, we have over 600 titles in our shared online collection that will work with most MP3 players, except for Apple iPod products. OverDrive has recently begun phasing in titles that can be played on iPods, and we are planning to add those to our collection in the next few months.

In order to access our downloadable audio book collection, visit the library’s web site at cclva.org and click on the red & orange OverDrive logo in the right-hand column.
OverDrive has a list of compatible players, but we caution you that even though iPod is listed, our collection of audio books does not yet support that format. There is also an option to “Test My Device” which allows you download a test file to your player and check to see if it will play.

In order to use OverDrive, you will need to download the OverDrive Media Console software. You only need to do this once for each computer you use for downloading. The audio books need to be downloaded to your computer before you can transfer them to your player. Because of size, most books have several parts that need to be downloaded one at a time. Some titles will let you burn them to compact discs.

Titles on OverDrive check out just like regular books, meaning that only one user can download them at a time. Built-in digital rights management software will cause the downloaded titles on your player to expire after the two-week checkout period. If the title you would like to download is available, “add to cart” will be an option. If another patron has already checked the title out, you will get an option to “place a hold.”

Not only does our OverDrive collection have fiction and non-fiction titles of interest to adults, it contains more than 200 titles for children and teens. Children will also want to check out another free audio e-book experience that we offer through our web site: Tumble Books.

Tumble Books are talking picture books which are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books which kids can read, or have read to them while online. Some titles are also available in French and Spanish. Audio-only titles include classics like “Anne of Green Gables” and “Black Beauty” which may appeal to older readers.

In accord with our summer reading program theme, “Catch the Reading Bug!”, a staff favorite is “Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective.” Check it out by clicking the blue TumbleBooks icon at cclva.org.

Elizabeth Hensley is the Adult Services Coordinator at the Culpeper County Library. She can be reached at or 825-8691.