Since I discovered the Gauteng E-Library a year ago, I've been fascinated with the concept of people logging into a website with their library card number and borrowing e-books. When you think about it, it's a groundbreaking concept.
So I've been looking for other South African libraries which offer this service, and there are precious few of them. Some private school libraries have e-lending facilities, as do some companies (although the latter mostly stock non-fiction books related to the industries in which they operate).
Last week, I went on Overdrive (an online library distributor), and went out of my way to search in each of South Africa's nine provinces. This is what I found:
Out of nine provinces in South Africa, only four have e-libraries, that I could find. And the Eastern Cape isn't even completely covered; you can only borrow e-books if you happen to live in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Maybe I didn't look hard enough, so if you know of any provincial e-libraries I missed, please let me know, and I'll update this post.
If you've never logged into your local e-library before, but you have a library card, give it a try. Once you're logged in, you can recommend all my books... and Gauteng already owns a copy of Memoirs of a Guardian Angel!
I'd love to hear your opinions on this. Do you have a library card? When last did you visit a physical library and borrow a book? Have you ever borrowed a book from an e-library?
Hit me up in the comments, and let's start a conversation.
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