New Hanover library expands e-book titles

New Hanover County Public Library has added a new digital platform for e-books and more than 400 titles to its collection.

“Our library is experiencing faster growing demand for downloadable content than with any other format to date. Over the past two years we’ve been flooded with borrowers enjoying e-books from North Carolina Digital Library, while serious researchers are able to access scholarly and technical e-books in [digital database] N.C. LIVE,” Harry Tuchmayer, library director, said in a press release.

To meet the growing demand, the library invested about $10,000 to subscribe to Baker and Taylor’s Axis 360 platform. It spent about $2,500 on the platform and $7,500 on the content, Tuchmayer said.

Axis 360 is a new digital media platform that provides readers with a cloud-based system for borrowing digital content. Library users can access the titles online, which expire after two weeks -- eliminating the need for late fees.

Blio is the free downloadable app that borrowers will use to access content at the Axis 360 website. Through Blio, library users can access children’s storybooks, cookbooks, craft books and other heavily illustrated e-books. At this time, readers can only read e-book titles available on Axis 360 through an iPad, iPhone, PC computer, iPod Touch or Android device. E-books for readers like Kindle and Nook are available through the library’s membership with the N.C. Digital Library.