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.