Valerie Horton, Minitex Director invites you to “kick the tires” on eBooks MN and offer constructive feedback before the “go live” date of February 29. Enjoy!

EBOOKS MINNESOTA WILL GO PUBLIC ON LEAP DAY (February 29th)

We are giving library staff a unique chance to preview Ebooks Minnesota (Ebooks MN) before our public launch on Leap Day 2016. The system is now available for you to explore at www.ebooksmn.org.

Ebooks MN is a collection featuring content from Minnesota’s independent publishers. The opening-day collection includes about 2,500 titles, and we plan to add more soon. Ebooks from ABDO, Lerner Publishing Group, and Cherry Lake Publishing make up a significant part of the school-age collection. Ebooks MN also includes scholarly and literary titles from the University of Minnesota Press, Milkweed Editions, Coffee House Press, and Arcadia Publishing/The History Press. These independent presses publish ebooks on a wide variety of topics and genres from sharks to the black death and from graphic novels to literary fiction. Ebooks MN also includes titles about Minnesota, such as Twins Baseball and Legendary Locals of Crookston, that were published outside the state. A selection of popular titles that are in the public domain, such as The Origin of Species and Dracula, rounds out the collection

Minitex will manage access to Ebooks MN using the familiar IP-range method we use for the Electronic Library for Minnesota. No digital rights management (DRM) is required. We have permanent access to these titles, there is no limit to the number that can be checked out at a time, and readers can keep them as long as they wish.  As with ELM, there is no additional cost for libraries to use the collection. Be sure to watch and share our introductory video, and download the app from iTunes, Google Play, or for your Kindle Fire.

On February 29, we will add Ebooks MN to www.elm4you.org and www.mnknows.org.  Take the leap and add this collection to your website on Leap Day as well. Instructions for linking are included on our project page at www.ebooksmn.org/about. School libraries may wish to link directly to content appropriate for younger readers. Libraries will be able to add the collection to their catalogs through MARC records, which will be available in March. An API for SirsiDynix will also be available soon.

Promotional bookmarks and posters will be available upon request. The Ebooks MN logo is available at www.ebooksmn.org/about for you to download. We encourage you to share your comments and suggestions using the form you’ll also find on the project page.

Ebooks MN is a two-year pilot project of the Minnesota Department of Education, State Library Services and Minitex. The collection was made possible in part by funding from the Minnesota Department of Education through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and by Minitex. The initiative originated from the 2014 Explore eBooks MN Summit and from the contributions of librarians across the state.

We hope you will enjoy leaping into Ebooks MN as we prepare the collection for your patrons!