Programs
E-books
As of March 25, 2008, library patrons across Northwest B.C. have access to books online. Electronic books, or e-books, conveniently allow people to check books out of the library without ever leaving the comfort of their own homes.
Thousands of books are available to be downloaded at downloads.bclibrary.ca, whether it's a classical Greek epic poem or a modern-day historical treatise on Iraq, or anything in-between. The virtual library acts the same as its real-life counterpart: books are checked out for a limited amount of time and, after a few weeks, they must be "returned" to the library.
Because of licensing agreements, e-books are only available for download from home computers, not from the library.
Although the e-book will probably never replace the paperback at the beach or the novel at bedtime, it sure makes it easy to check out a particular book, especially when the library is closed.
The e-book feature is courtesy of the Public Library Services Branch, part of the Ministry of Education of British Columbia.
Materials delivery system
Let's say you're on your way to Smithers from Prince Rupert, and you want to listen to something different than music for the four-and-a-half hour drive. So you go to the Prince Rupert library and pick up a book on CD. By the time you get to Smithers, the story is over. You want to drop it off, because you're afraid you'll lose it if you keep it with you. So you bring it to the library in Smithers, and the pleasant library staff there informs you they can take your item and deliver it back to the Prince Rupert Public Library at no cost to you.
This "materials delivery system" is brought to you by the North Coast Library Federation. Although this service has been in place for a few years in the Northwest, the Federation is now paying the bills for the delivery of materials between libraries.
So if you take out anything from any public library in Northwest B.C. - from Stewart to Kitimat, from Rupert to Houston - you can return that item at any other Northwestern public library and it will be returned back to its home library.
If you're concerned about bringing an item back near the due date, rest assured that the check-in date will be the date you brought it back to the library - not the date the item is checked into its home library.