Arts and culture centre introduces e-book subscription service

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) is preparing to introduce an e-book subscription service across South Africa province in order to benefit learners and teachers alike as they will have unlimited access to library material, promoting a culture of reading and improving learning as well as teaching.

The electronic books will largely be made up of fiction and readable non-fiction for adults. The service is currently being piloted at Empangeni and Umhlali Libraries as well as among KZN DAC employees.

The department believes that this project would be very beneficial aside from improving reading and providing unlimited access to library materials, It will also further cement support for existing libraries as the department would embark on a provincial awareness campaign to educate communities about the service.

According to All Africa, Interested parties will have to register to become library cardholders before being loaded onto the system as e-book readers. The Overdrive APP for smartphones and tablets can also be downloaded from the Google Play store for free. Detailed steps for each device will be available at our libraries, which all have free internet access. Internet connectivity will only be required to access and download the e-books, however reading a book will be done offline.

Members have two weeks to read a borrowed book before it automatically returns to the list of available books on the service. The paperless service means there will be no need for overdue notices or fines. E-book membership will be managed by the department's library services' unit.

"We are extremely proud of this initiative as it confirms that KZN is on the path to becoming a trademark information hub. The department is embracing technology as the future in speeding up service delivery and transformation - in this case it is being used to increase unlimited access to information, especially among our province's youth" said Department HOD Sibongile Nzimande.