Pandigital Novel

My Pandigital is back to life. I checked everything I downloaded, and I found out there were no books which I downloaded using Overdrive app. Remember ? The pages were not formated and text size adjustment didn't work. I decided to practice downloading again. Dowloaded an e-book on my computer and started reading it. Following Katya's recommendations, which I didn't remember well, I dragged the ebook from the computer into Pandigital. It died again. While Katya says "opening it with some other than Overdrive". As Customer Service didn't get in touch with me, I will probably go to Barnes and Noble to register it and see if they could help me.

When I got my Nook Simple Touch last year I was excited to pick out a cover for it. I didn’t really know anything more about covers than what I saw at Barnes & Noble so I found one in a nice color with a nice quote on it and bought it. When I bought the Nook Color Tablet I again looked at the covers at Barnes & Noble and wasn’t very impressed. Nothing I found really said anything about me – the owner of that particular e-reader (although I did like the simple sophisticated Saffiano leather Kate Spade cover – I just couldn’t justify the $89 price tag). So I did what I do so often in my purchasing role for Neighborhood Libraries – I started researching what else is out there. I found a lot more covers – pages & pages on Amazon – but still nothing was catching my eye. Then I searched for “the best Nook tablet covers” and finally found what I was looking for. Oberon Design (www.oberondesign.com) offers handcrafted leather covers and sleeves for all Kindle and Nook e-readers in a variety of designs and colors. They are unique and my red paisley sleeve is a beautiful work of art. So if you’re looking for an e-reader cover, check out Oberon Design’s website.

E-Reader Notes

My e-reader is Nook Simple Touch. I found it to be easy and pleasant to use. I discovered that in order to operate a Nook the owner has to register it with Barnes & Noble. To register the e-reader, the owner has to establish a Barnes & Noble personal account. The registration process requires access to wireless Internet connection. The easiest place to register a Nook is one of the Barnes & Noble stores. After registering my Nook, I was able to check out ALD e-books. I also wanted to read books in Russian. I used Katya’s article in Tech Talk blog at http://aldnlreadtolead.blogspot.com/2011/06/popular-russian-formats-for-e-books.html  to guide me through the process (thank you, Katya!). I was able to download a book in Russian to my computer and convert the Russian format to e-pub. I could read the book in Calibre, a format converter I used. However, when I transferred the book to my Adobe Digital Editions library, the text consisted of question marks. I went through the procedure several times but could not make Adobe display the Russian text. I decided to connect my Nook to the computer and see if I would get question marks there as well. To my surprise, the Nook displayed the text properly. I realized that Calibre did accomplish the format conversion. Even though Adobe could not display the Russian font, it transferred the format conversion to the Nook.

Compact flash cards and new XQD

This blog may not interest everyone but if you or your patrons own and use Nikon or Sony cameras that use Compact Flash Cards, you may be interested in this article. http://news.yahoo.com/goodbye-compactflash-cards-nikon-sony-welcome-xqd-format-021005443.html
I know I have had a harder time finding Compact Flash cards in the last few months unless I go to a camera store etc. I used to be able to buy them almost anywhere, including Costco but no more.

NEW NOOK COLOR USB PROBLEM

My Nook Color worked fine in the beginning and there was no problem using ALD's website, checking out and reading overdrive materials, etc. Last week I got an error message when trying to Sync my Nook Color with my Computer to pick up my overdrive epub hold. When I plugged my Nook's USB into my computer an error message/warning came up saying that the USB device is not recognized by this computer. I rebooted my Computer and the Nook, made sure the Nook was fully charged and turned on when I connected it. I also tried plugging in to a different USB port. Nothing worked. I "Googled" this problem and see lots of other NookColor owners have experienced similar problems. B & N Customer support is not very helpful. I requested a new USB cord. Any other suggestions????
Thanks

Overdrive issues in Pandigital Novel device

Here is an Overdrive issue with Pandigital Novel I came across while doing a BAL and I think it may be an issue for some other non-mainstream e-readers.

The problem is that even though one can easily download both Overdrive app and e-books on Pandigital, when opening such a book in Overdrive one can see only a part of the text: about 2/3 to be exact. Text size adjustment does not do the trick, nor do any changes in Settings.

The only way out that I found was sideloading a book on the device and then opening it with some app other than Overdrive (such as B&A app on Pandigital, for example) or getting a Kindle app and downloading a Kindle format book from our collection.

Online Education for Kids

Hi NL Staff! This perhaps a strange topic to be posting for work, but it is a new technological adventure I have embarked on and one that I am extremely excited about!

Some of you may be familiar with all of the educational options out there for students. I only recently became aware of online schooling options for my 13 year old, 8th grade son. What I learned, and what we ended up setting up for him, is that you can create a combination of online and "traditional" (brick and mortar classroom) learning. This was all done for FREE through the school distrcit we live in, they even provide a macbook which they check out to us. So my son takes his "core" classes online and attends his former middle school for two electives and after-school athletics. I cannot say enough about how well this is working out for him and for our family.

What is super exciting to me is the technology piece in this. This is a real world opportunity for my son to continue to develop his skills technologically by using the following on a regular basis:
*Virtual Classes weekely using camera, mike, and/or instant messaging
*Online presentations with peers including presentations and desktop sharing to present
*Updated/latest technology for documents, presentations, etc
*Google docs, calendars, etc between teachers and with students
*Variety of communications tools with teachers and students
*Online textbooks, assignments, quizzes, tests

Additionally, this gives him a great combination of structured and independent learning/working...a great lifeskill for the future. Because parental involvement is such an important piece with this type of learning, I have been able to brush up on my tech skills and learn new things!!

I thought I would pass this information on as you may find more and more online learners in your libraries...the numbers keep growing annually!