The Media Library has a couple of new resources available for immediate use relating to ebooks. The first is the CyberSmarts series from Rosen. This set of five elementary leveled books provide an interactive online experience that simulates social networking within a teaching environment. Titles include: Avoiding Predators Online, Playing Games Online, Protecting Your Privacy Online, Stopping Cyberbullying, and Using Social Networks. Teen Cybersmarts are coming for next school year. This is a perfect way to teach the mandated online safety items. See your librarian for instructions on how to access these books.

We also have a new set of ebook readers that can be borrowed for research/investigation purposes. The case includes one each of a Kindle (the $79 E Ink version with ads), a Kindle Fire ($199 Tablet), a Nook Simple Touch ($99 E Ink), and a Nook Tablet 8GB ($199 Tablet). You can borrow these for a few days, or schedule a time for me to come out and lead a group through a comparison and review of the different devices. Short version is: Nook Simple Touch is GREAT for reading groups/classes. Nook Tablet is a lot nicer than Fire and the $79 Kindle with ads is a bit of a rip-off ($30 to remove ads and then it is more than the really nice Nook Simple Touch) however Kindle does better at 1:1 loans of various books. Nook is the way to go for multiple copies in a reading group.