Superpatron Kevin Kelly has digital library cards for both the NY Public Library and the San Francisco Public Library so that he can get access to all of the online databases that they have to offer that are not available for free on the web.
Cool Tool: Digital Library Cards:
There are several ways to get to this stuff as an individual. 1) You can call a public librarian to do the occasional search. 2) You can purchase a subscription to a database vendor for personal access, or 3) You can use a digital library card for web access from your home via your local library system. For most of us, #3 is the way to go.
In most states, you can get a library card from a public library outside of your county of residence -- as long as you can prove state residence (true for the San Francisco Public Library). Often you will have to go the actual state library in person to pick up your card, but once in hand, you can access the library from the web. Fanatical researchers are known to have a wallet full of library cards from numerous public library systems within their respective states. Some states, Ohio and Michigan being two of the better known, have statewide consortiums of private, corporate and public libraries, which allows you access to the combined services and databases licensing power of them all.
Electronic collections are often tucked away into an odd corner of a library's web site, requiring separate logins from the main site and not integrated into the regular holdings or information presented. When you can find them, though, there's a ton of useful stuff available that's completely absent from the Googlesphere.
I think that this is a great idea. Is anyone aware of any other libraries that offer digital library cards and what the reception to them by the public has been?
Posted by: Joane Mullowney | 06 September 2006 at 09:24 AM