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Getting e-Books on Your Android Tablet

What you need to know about library e-books is that each one is protected by Digital Rights

Management (DRM). This means that access to e-books is restricted to one user per book and

copying of the file is prohibited. DRM also means that you must have authorization to use e-

books. This guide will help you set up your device to allow you to access DRM protected library

e-books on your Android tablet.

Setting Up

Using e-books is a straightforward process; however, to make this easier and trouble free, you

will want to make sure you have setup your tablet properly.

Before you do anything, you will want to make sure that you are connected to the internet. Once

you have made sure you are connected, you are ready to setup. You will only have to complete

these steps once.

1. On your tablet you will need to download the Overdrive Media Console App from your app

store (i.e. Google Play). Simply open your app store and search “Overdrive Media Console”

and select Download or Install. Each time you want to read or download a new e-book you

will use this app.

2. The first time you open Overdrive on your tablet you will be prompted to create an

Overdrive Account. Select Sign up and fill in the required information. You must provide

this information; it will authorize you to download e-books.

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3. Once you have filled in this information, click Sign Up to complete the process. This same

account can be used for multiple devices, so it’s a good idea to keep a record of your

username and password. You will receive an email from Overdrive Accounts asking you to

verify your account. Make sure you click the link that you receive in that email to activate

your account.

4. Now that you have installed the app and authorized, you will need to Add a Library.

5. Open the Overdrive App. Navigate to the home menu, located at the top-right of the screen.

Tap on Add. This will open a search box.

6. In the search box, type in “Orillia Public Library” to find your library. Now you will want to

favourite this library by tapping on the star beside the library name, which will appear as

Ontario Library Service Consortium. It will turn yellow when you have done this. This will

create a permanent link to our library e-book website.

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Orillia Public Library | 36 Mississaga Street West | 705-325-2338 | info@orilliapubliclibrary.ca

7. To get to the library’s e-book website, you will now click on Ontario Library Service

Consortium which will allow you to browse our Overdrive site without leaving the app.

8. Next, you will want to Sign In to view Orillia’s collection. We have purchased additional titles

of select books for exclusive access by Orillia patrons; you will not know which titles are

included unless you are signed in.

9. After tapping Sign In, you will be asked for your library’s name. Type in “Orillia Public

Library” and then select the library from the list.

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10. After you have selected Orillia Public Library a new text box will appear and you will need

to type in your library barcode number (without the spaces) and then click Sign In. To save

time, you may want to click the check box that says Remember my login information on

this device.

Logging In

After the initial setup of Overdrive, you will simply need to login and check out e-books. These

are the steps you will go through each time you want to find a new e-book to read.

1. Open your Overdrive app.

2. Opening your Overdrive app will bring you to the home page. If you’re not currently reading

a book, your app will open to your bookshelf, which will show you any e-books you have

downloaded. To get a new book, you will need to go to Orillia’s Overdrive website.

Remember to click the Home menu and then select Ontario Library Service Consortium

from your libraries.

3. Clicking Ontario Library Service Consortium will take you to our Overdrive webpage. It is

recommended that you sign in to your account before you do any browsing, this way you

can see any additional titles that we have purchased for Orillia Library Patrons.

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4. To sign in, simply click on Sign In in the top right hand corner of the page.

5. If necessary, type in your library name. Then, fill in your library card number information

(without the spaces). If you have not already done so, it is recommended that you select

Remember my login information on this device. This will save the information that you

have typed in, meaning you will not need to type out your card number each time you

borrow books.

6. Now that you have logged in, you are ready to start browsing e-books and checking out.

Checking Out

1. There are several ways that you can browse e-books; by title, author, genre or collection.

These menus are located at the top of the page. Simply click on the link to view the

collection you wish to browse. If you do not see these collection, tap on Menu, located in the

top right of the page:

2. Once you have selected a title that you would like to check out there are a couple of

indicators that you will need to watch for.

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3. The first thing that you will want to watch for is the little book icon in the top-right corner of

the title that you would like to checkout:

4. If the book cover is black this means that it is available for you to checkout. If the book

cover is grey; this means that it is already in use and you will have to place a hold.

5. To view more information about the book like a description or the number of copies of a

book, you will need to tap on the book cover.

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6. Once you have decided that you would like to borrow the book, you simply click Borrow and

follow the prompts. This will move the book you have checked out to your bookshelf.

7. Once your book has moved to your bookshelf, you will now press the button that says

Download. This will download your e-book so that you can read it without being connected

to the internet.

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8. To find the downloaded version of your book in your Overdrive app you will need to navigate

to your Bookshelf, which you can find by clicking the home menu:

9. To open the book, simply click on the book cover and the book will open. To turn the page,

swipe on the right side of the page to go forward, and the left to go back.

Advanced Features

Now that you know the basics of signing in and checking out your e-books, there are some

features you will want to be able to do, like place a hold or return a title early.

Placing a Hold

1. Our e-book collection is popular, so it is likely that you will have to wait for certain titles to

become available. Like physical books, the library only has so many copies of e-books and

they are licensed for one user at a time. Placing a hold is easy; all you need is an email

address.

2. When you encounter a book you want to borrow and it is unavailable (identifiable by the

gray book in the top right corner of the book cover), you will see the option to Place a Hold

instead of Borrow. Simply tap on Place a Hold.

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3. This will open a new window, where you will type in your email address. Always double

check for spelling errors as you will be notified via email when the item is available for you.

This can be updated at any time in the event that you change your email address.

4. By default, your hold will be automatically checked out to you when it is available. This way

you will not miss picking up your hold; all you’ll have to do is download the book and start

reading.

5. After receiving an email notifying you that your hold is available for pick up, you will login to

your Overdrive account.

6. Navigate to your Bookshelf to find the items that you have checked out. Since the hold was

automatically checked out to you the item should be here. Tap Download to start reading.

7. If your hold is not on your Bookshelf this may mean that you have unchecked the automatic

checkout. In this case, navigate to your Holds shelf and check if the item is there. You will

see a button to Borrow, which will check it out to you, adding it to your Bookshelf, and then

you can Download.

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8. You will also want to be aware of the Holds shelf as it is the place where you can find out

your position in the holds queue.

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Deleting/Returning Titles

With e-books you will never accumulate late fees as access simply expires; however, the books

will not automatically remove themselves from your tablet. You will continue to see the book

cover on your tablet, but you will not be able to open it after your title has expired.

To remove the title from your device once it has expired, you simply press and hold your finger

on the image of the book you want to remove.

This will open a menu and you will tap on Delete to remove the item from your tablet.

If your title has not expired and you tap on Delete this will not remove the book from your

account. It will still be checked out to you, it is only the file of the book that you have removed.

This means that you can login to your account and re-download the book to your tablet.

If you would like to return your e-book early (i.e. remove the book completely from your account)

you will press and hold on the book cover in question. This time in the menu you will select

Return. This will remove the book from your tablet and return it to the Overdrive library. You will

not be able to access the book again unless you borrow it once again from the collection.

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Advanced Searching

There are many e-books on our Overdrive site and it can be overwhelming to search through all

of them especially when many seem to be checked out. There are some tricks that you can use

to find available books to borrow quickly.

A great way to find available titles fast is to use the Available Now feature when you are

browsing e-books. Each time you search, you will see this option; clicking it will display only the

e-books that are available at that moment.

To use this feature, you will want to conduct a search.

1. For example, select the New Books collection; this will display all of the recently added

books to the Overdrive collection.

There are many books here that are already checked out and not available for you to

download. You can filter out these unavailable books.

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2. Look to the left hand side of the page. This section will allow you to filter your results. Tap on

Available Now to filter your results. Now all the books that will appear are those that can be

checked out immediately.