eBooks

Library eBooks and Audiobooks (LEA) On Demand

Overview

Library eBooks and Audiobooks (LEA) is a lending program which, for the first time, allows the patrons of one network to check out eBooks and Audiobooks from the collection of another network.

Benefits

Eight of our Automated Resource Sharing Networks - Boston Public Library (MBLN), CLAMS, CW MARS, Minuteman, MVLC, NOBLE, OCLN, and SAILS - have offered eBooks and Audiobooks to their patrons for many years.  Each network's collection required a card from that network to access.

No longer! The LEA program, powered by OverDrive, now allows patrons of any participating network to use their home library card to borrow eBooks and Audiobooks from all of the networks. Every Massachusetts resident can now access a huge collection of over 1,000,000 items!

Background

Three networks (SAILS, OCLN and Minuteman) piloted a new inter-network lending model with the vendor OverDrive beginning in the winter of 2017-18.  Over the course of the next year, the remaining automated networks having OverDrive collections joined the program, now known as LEA. By May 2019, with the on boarding of the final two networks, LEA was available statewide. In addition, the SAILS network serves as the access point through which MassCat members and unaffiliated libraries may participate, coordinated by the Massachuetts Library System.

Group Join Date
Minuteman (original pilot) November 2017
OCLN (original pilot) November 2017
SAILS (original pilot) November 2017
MassCat July 2018 (public libraries only)
C/W MARS July 2018
CLAMS July 2018
NOBLE August 2018
Boston Public Library February 2019
MVLC April 2019

 

With LEA, it is now possible for any Massachusetts resident, via either their public library card or the Boston Public Library's eCard, to access eBook collections from across the state. 


For More Information

Jaccavrie McNeely, Electronic Services Specialist
617-725-1860 x238
857-283-5661 (Mobile)
jaccavrie.mcneely@mass.gov