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FLORENCE, Ariz. – The Pinal County Library District is launching eBook service at a special event at the Florence Community Library on Dec. 4 at 5:30 p.m. The Florence Community Library is located at 1000 South Willow Street. 
“This is our next step in putting the library in your living room, your doctor’s office, your back yard, your vacation site or wherever you may choose to access our eBooks from your electronic device,” said Denise Keller, Pinal County Library District Director. “Our bricks and mortar libraries are here to stay but eBooks are growing in popularity so we obtained grant funding to offer them also.”
“All you need is a device like a Nook, iPhone or iPad, Kobo reader, Android phone or tablet device and a library card with a PIN number. On Dec. 4, we can show you how easy it is to get the free Cloud Library application and check out your first free eBook,” Keller said.
Those who can’t attend the Dec. 4 event, the Library District website has tutorials and Frequently Asked Questions on the main home page. The website is available at PinalCountyAZ.gov by clicking on the ‘library’ link.
Users can download up to three eBooks at a time and the ‘check out’ period is three weeks per book. Extremely popular books may be wait-listed for a short time. As with physical books on shelves, publishers require libraries to abide by a ‘one copy/one user’ model. The library licenses a certain quantity of eligible downloads. Once the quota is reached, a queue will form until the licenses are again available.
The Apache Junction Public Library and the Casa Grande Public Library entered into an agreement for a different eBook platform and those locations have eBook capabilities already. This will be a brand new service for the remaining 10 libraries in Pinal County.
The Cloud Library application will host more than 400 titles at launch with more titles being added in the months and weeks to follow.
This project is supported with funds granted by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records Agency under the Library Services and Technology Act, which is administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Using this grant, the Pinal County Library District was able to license the 3M Cloud Library application that hosts the downloadable eBooks and is tied into the County’s full library catalog, which can be viewed on the county website.
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