Actually, netLibrary is conveniently located where you are and only electronic travel is involved.

This highly accessible virtual library is on the Web and now available from computers at the Appleton Library or from your home computer. It is the world's largest collection of full-text electronic books or e-books. netLibrary is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It operates like a physical library with a catalog that can be searched and browsed by author, title or subject. netLibrary users can also "check out" books. The ability to find information at netlibrary is further improved by the power to search the full text of the books themselves -- no more flipping through endless pages to find something. It is exciting to search thousands of books and immediately see their contents.

Instead of library cards, each user signs up for an account. Using that account an e-book is checked out or "borrowed" for 24 hours and it is automatically returned to the collection when the 24 hours expires. Or, netLibrary users may choose to browse a book for 15 minutes to find a specific piece of information without checking it out.

The Appleton Library as part of the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium will initially provide access to about 1600 titles with additional titles forthcoming by the end of 2001. The collection of books available from netLibrary includes professional and reference texts as well as public domain classics like Alice In Wonderland, or Homer's Odyssey.

All of the netLibrary titles will be listed in NEWcat, the library's catalog, and a click on a link in the record will bring up the electronic copy of the book. Each e-book appears onscreen with cover artwork, illustrations, pictures, diagrams and text, just as it would in hard copy from its publisher.

NETlibrary offers tremendous potential for library users doing research and will enhance the Library's print collection. For more details, contact the Library's Reference and Information Desk at 832-6173.