When you’ve listened to all the music you can stand on that MP3 player, or when you’d just like to learn Spanish or hear some classic literature without having to go back to school, consider audio books – free audio books!
Websites where you can buy, rent, or download audio books abound – from Amazon.com to Audible.com to Audiobooks.com (who claim to have 15,000 titles), there are thousands (probably tens of thousands) of titles available for download online. On these websites, downloads of audio books will cost anywhere from about $7 to $50 (no, they aren’t free here!), depending upon the type of book, its popularity, its “newness”, etc. You sign up with the website, you fill in your personal information and a credit card, you select your audio books, and you are ready to download!
But what if you don’t want to sign up with a website? What if you don’t want to give someone your credit card number? And most importantly, what if you don’t want to PAY $7-$50 for a downloaded audio book??!!! Well, you are in luck, because if you live in a town of any size (or even if you don’t, in some states), you are only a few clicks away from downloading hundreds or thousands of audio books absolutely free! What’s the catch? Come closer … let me whisper so no one else will hear … you need a … are you ready for this? … you need a library card!
Public libraries across the country now have audio download catalogs available from their website. If you haven’t been to the library in years, now is the time to go back, if only to get a library card. If you have a card, but don’t have the slightest idea what your library’s Internet address is, you are again in luck, because Public Libraries.com (see link at end of this article) has a listing of all the public libraries in the United States, as well as US State Libraries, Presidential Libraries, National Libraries of the World, and University & College Libraries.
I’m not saying you’ll be able to download books (or anything else, for that matter) from ALL of these libraries, but what I am saying is that you should be able to find the website (or at least the address and phone number) of a library near you that has free audio books for you to download! If you would like to get an idea of what kind of books are available from these public library resources, check out the links at the end of this article to the Denver Public Library download page, as well as the New York Public Library’s “eNYPL” page.
Besides your library card, you will probably also need to download some software off the library website. While some libraries offer free downloads of Windows Media Player, most libraries seem to be using a software program called Overdrive Media Console v2.1. The software is simple and user-friendly, and really comes in handy if you don’t have any of the other media players, or if the library’s download system does not work with your media player.
The following details are based upon my experience with my own public library system, and may not apply to your local library, but in general, it appears that you can download these free audio books from your library for a period of 10-14 days. You are usually limited to 10-12 books at any given time. If an audio book is not available, you can place an “ehold” on it, and you will be notified when it is available to be downloaded. Audio books can be downloaded to your computer, to a CD or to a portable device like an MP3 player, and they are “automatically returned” to the library at the end of the lending period. That is to say, the files will still be on your computer, but you will no longer be able to access them. However, in most cases, if you have downloaded them to a portable device, the files do not become inaccessible.
Please check with your local library to determine their requirements, lending period, and other important information about downloading – and ENJOY your FREE audio books!
