The range of entertainment available on audio books is huge: from Bestsellers, Classics, Comedy, Biography to History, Travel and Politics. Research shows that most people listen to audiocassettes and CDs while they are doing something else - driving, doing housework, exercising, preparing to go to sleep, surfing the net and especially travelling. Audio CDs are still out-sold by tapes and it's forecast that it will be 2006/07 before that trend is reversed.



So, if you don't have time to stop off at the library or the bookstore before you leave for the beach or the mountains this summer - don't worry! You can still take a bestseller with you on vacation.

More than 250 new full textbooks by authors like James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Nora Roberts and W.E.B. Griffin are now available for free download to your home computer. You can transfer the audio books to your MP3 Player or burn them to a disk and play them in your car or anywhere! (A great way to pass the time on long drives!)

You can download digital audio books if you have a valid library card from those libraries or any of the following: Clearwater Public Library; East Lake Community Library; Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative; Largo Public Library; Manatee Community College Library; Palm Harbor Library; Pasco County Public Library System; Safety Harbor Public Library and St. Petersburg Public Library System.

You can access "audio books to go" through a link on the web site of each of the participating libraries or by logging onto http://digitalbooks.tblc.org. There are now more than 600 titles available, ranging from popular fiction to self-help, from romance to young adult. If you haven't checked the website for available titles lately, you are missing out on some amazing reading!

Download the special software program on the Digital Book Catalog homepage, and hundreds of audio books are available for you to enjoy on vacation, or at home. Downloading a digital audio book takes as little as 15 minutes. You can borrow as many as four audio books at a time.

No need to return these audio books to the library! Once your seven-day loan is over, the book is no longer available to you on your home computer.

Technology for the new service is provided through OverDrive, the national leader in downloadable media for libraries. The Digital Book Catalog is a joint project of the participating libraries and the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC). 96 libraries are members of TBLC. Together these libraries serve more than 4.1 million Floridians (approximately 30% of Florida's total population) in 12 counties in west central Florida.