The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ Introducing eBooks @ your library
3/ Useful Web Links Section Highlight – “Directories” Links
4/ Reader's Advisory Section Highlight – Florida
5/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the January issue of Books & Bytes. This month we will introduce a great new service available through our web site – eBooks. This will be followed by an exploration of the “Directories” category in Useful Web Links. We will also examine the “Florida” section in our Reader's Advisory.

We hope you enjoy receiving Books & Bytes. Please let us know what you think of our publication by writing to: webmaster@pbclibrary.org

2/ Introducing eBooks @ your library

The Palm Beach County Library System introduces another new way of accessing information by offering a collection of eBooks: full-text electronic versions of published books that library patrons may search, borrow, read, and return over the Internet. The collection consists of over 21,000 titles across all subject areas, with the strongest coverage in business, history, health/medicine, sociology, literature, and religion.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/ebooks.htm

To access eBooks, you must first visit a County library and use an Internet computer to set up a free eBook account. Our staff will be happy to assist you with this process.

After setting up an account at the library, you may check out eBook titles from Internet computers in the Main Library, in all branches, or from your home or work via the Internet. eBooks are checked out for a two hour period; a book will be returned automatically at the end of the check-out period. You will be able to check the title out again if no one else is using it. There is no limit to the number of times you may borrow an eBook.

The Library has access to this shared collection of eBooks from NetLibrary, a leading provider of these materials. In addition to the NetLibrary collection of copyrighted eBooks, patrons have access to more than 4,000 public domain eBooks, featuring political texts and classics in literature and history. As an added feature, Houghton Mifflin’s 4th Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is embedded into NetLibrary eBooks and has been enhanced technologically to include graphics and audio pronunciation. Users are able to access a definition, and visual or verbal pronunciation, simply by highlighting a word.

The Palm Beach County Library System is joining approximately 50 other public libraries around the state in providing patrons with eBooks through a contract the State Library of Florida has negotiated with SOLINET. This new collection is called the SOLINET Shared Collection.

We hope you enjoy reading eBooks. Please take a look at this service by visiting:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/ebooks.htm

3/ Useful Web Links

As a regular feature each month, we examine one section of our Useful Web Links. Our web directory is compiled by librarians who apply their knowledge and Internet experience to recommend web sites for each topic.

Tracking down a telephone number? Looking for a ZIP code? Searching for a newspaper article from last week? If so, please check out the “Directories” section of Useful Web Links.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm

The “Directories” section is divided into four sub-categories: Telephone Numbers, Addresses, Maps, and News.

Telephone Numbers contains the following sites:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm#tbooks

GTE SuperPages
Performs Yellow Pages searches; and can search Canada, Puerto Rico, Spanish language listings.

Switchboard
Includes Yellow Pages, White Pages, reverse directory searches; e-mail searches, and maps.

Four11
Yahoo!'s white pages engine for e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.

FindLaw
Reverse Directory Search by phone number or address.

Freeality Reverse Lookup
Searches various reverse directory databases: 800/888 and fax lookup.

State of Florida Telephone Directory
Locate numbers for State agencies, universities, community colleges, schools, city and county government. Includes an official highway mileage calculator.

Canada411
Private and Business Listings across Canada, in French or English

PhoneNumbers.net
Connects to international White Pages, Yellow Pages, and business directories.

Addresses allows you to locate these three sites:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm#zip

Postal Codes or Free Searching Zip Codes
Many links to sources for postal code information: many non-English sources.

Postal Service Zip Code Finder
Use the official U.S. Postal Service Zip code finder to locate mailing addresses across the country.

Maps provides links to these four map-generating sites:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm#map

Mapquest / Mapblast / Rand McNally / Expedia
Maps-on-demand: use these sites to create maps for addresses you submit and for driving directions between locations

News offers a listing of different newspaper sites:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm#News

Custom Newspapers
Full text access to: The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times. A valid library card number is needed to access this database from home.

Find Articles
FindArticles.com is a vast archive of published articles that you can search for free. Constantly updated, it contains articles dating back to 1998 from more than 300 magazines and journals.

InfoTrac OneFile - Magazine Database
Contains articles on subjects such as education, business, science, current events, art, politics, entertainment, law, health care, technology, and general interest topics. A valid library card number is needed to access this database from home.

Local Newspapers on the Internet
These are links to the online editions of local Palm Beach County newspapers.

National Newspaper Index - Infotrac
Article abstracts or references from five major newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. A valid library card number is needed to access this database from home.

Newspapers on the Web
The Newspaper Association of America links to U.S., Canadian, and other international newspapers available on the Internet.

Florida Newspapers Online
Links to every Florida newspaper with a Web site.

To visit these great sites and others, drop by the “Directories” category of Useful Web Links at:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-directories.htm

4/ Reader's Advisory Highlight

Looking for more information on famous and not-so-famous literature? Do you want to delve deeper into a genre? Or do you simply want to read a good book? This month, we will conclude our look at Reader’s Advisory by examining the “Florida” section.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/read-florida.htm

Carl Hiaasen's Official Web Site
Discover South Florida native Carl Hiaasen and learn about his life and his latest projects.

Florida Fiction for Summer Reading
Reading for Florida fiction lovers. Focuses on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

Florida Thrillers
A list of crime fiction set in Florida.

Florida Writers Association
Florida's first and only statewide, nonprofit, organization dedicated to the support and networking of both aspiring and published writers in any genre. Find a list of authors and their personal web sites listed on this site.

Joy Fielding.com
Visit the web site of local Palm Beach snowbird and bestselling author Joy Fielding. Learn more about her books and her personal life.

Lee County Library System - Florida Fiction
A list of fiction writers who have lived in Florida at some point.

The Official Elmore Leonard Web Site
The official web site of the famous Florida author. It provides information about his novels and the films they have inspired.

Pineapple Press
Their mission is to publish the best Florida related material. They also have a growing list of books on subjects not specifically related to Florida including fundraising for nonprofits, lighthouses and lighthouse keepers, ghosts and some children's nonfiction and literature.

Randy Wayne White
Author of the Doc Ford series of novels, Florida author Randy Wayne White also writes columns for Outside Magazine

South Florida Fictioneers
A list of recommended South Florida mystery writers and their books, on a web site devoted primarily to John D. MacDonald's character, Travis McGee.

If you are looking for a good book to read, check out the Reading Lists in our Reader’s Advisory:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/read-florida.htm