Programs
E-books
As of March 25, 2008, library patrons across Northwest B.C. have access to books online. Electronic books, or e-books, conveniently allow people to check books out of the library without ever leaving the comfort of their own homes.
Thousands of books are available to be downloaded at downloads.bclibrary.ca, whether it's a classical Greek epic poem or a modern-day historical treatise on Iraq, or anything in-between. The virtual library acts the same as its real-life counterpart: books are checked out for a limited amount of time and, after a few weeks, they must be "returned" to the library.
Because of licensing agreements, e-books are only available for download from home computers, not from the library.
Although the e-book will probably never replace the paperback at the beach or the novel at bedtime, it sure makes it easy to check out a particular book, especially when the library is closed.
The e-book feature is courtesy of the Public Library Services Branch, part of the Ministry of Education of British Columbia.
Materials delivery system
Let's say you're on your way to Smithers from Prince Rupert, and you want to listen to something different than music for the four-and-a-half hour drive. So you go to the Prince Rupert library and pick up a book on CD. By the time you get to Smithers, the story is over. You want to drop it off, because you're afraid you'll lose it if you keep it with you. So you bring it to the library in Smithers, and the pleasant library staff there informs you they can take your item and deliver it back to the Prince Rupert Public Library at no cost to you.
This "materials delivery system" is brought to you by the North Coast Library Federation. Although this service has been in place for a few years in the Northwest, the Federation is now paying the bills for the delivery of materials between libraries.
So if you take out anything from any public library in Northwest B.C. - from Stewart to Kitimat, from Rupert to Houston - you can return that item at any other Northwestern public library and it will be returned back to its home library.
If you're concerned about bringing an item back near the due date, rest assured that the check-in date will be the date you brought it back to the library - not the date the item is checked into its home library.
Ask-away
The Federation's libraries have been quite active in participating in the "AskAway" online reference service. In the old days, if you were looking for information, you might have visited a library to search for a book you wanted, and asked a reference librarian for help. Those reference librarians are still around, and now they've got another element to their job description: helping people find information on the Internet.
There's a lot of unorganized e-information out there, and it can sometimes be difficult to sort out the good from the bad. The AskAway service gives you librarian-approved sources of online information. How does it work? Simply go to www.askaway.org. You can sign in with an email address or just type your question into the box on the right-hand side of the screen and remain anonymous. It's also live: you and the librarian will be talking over your computers in real-time, similar to MSN Messenger.
When you get to the first page of askaway.com, type your question in the box on the right-hand side of the screen. Eventually, a librarian will get your question and go looking around on the Internet for the best source to answer that question. This service is live, so the librarian will get back to you as soon as possible with the best information he can find. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask them and the librarian will answer those, too. And remember: it's all live.
It's not only librarians from the North Coast Library Federation that participate in this service; there are librarians from all over B.C. waiting to answer your questions at any time. Each library in the province is appointed a "shift" at the virtual reference desk. For example, one library might work the "desk" from 10 a.m. to noon on Mondays, and another will take over from noon-2 p.m. Like any other library, it has opening and closing hours: it's available 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Friday to Saturday.
The Internet is a vast, unorganized and mostly-unreliable database of information, but there is some good stuff in there. To find accurate and reliable information, take advantage of the AskAway reference service.