Welcome to the world of electronic books. By means of the NetLibrary—a part of your public library’s resources—you can have access to a large collection of electronic books 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All you need is an account and a computer that is connected to the Internet. Once you have set up your own personal account at a local library, you can read eBooks whenever you want.
This electronic library contains a wide variety of materials. Some of it is literary, and in the public domain. Other books are important references that can be used for research. All eBooks in the collection are available for you to read or to check out. Depending upon a book’s status, you may check it out for 24 hours, 3 days, or only view it online.
     The following directions will tell you what you need to do to get started so you can benefit from this wonderful resource that is a significant part of your library privileges.

Before you do anything else —

     You will need to set up your own personal account. Importantly, you can only set up your account while you are at a computer on the premises of a local library. Each library subscribes to its own group of eBooks. You may have more than one account, each with its own unique Username and Password. They can be set up at any of the Quad-Cities libraries.
     For example, you can set up an account at the Rock Island Public Library and at the Davenport Public Library. However, you must go to each library to set up the accounts so you can use each library’s eBook collection. The system will not let you use the same names or passwords for different accounts.

Setting Up An Account —

     In order to set up your free account, you will first need to go to http://www.netlibrary.com where you will find NetLibrary’s Welcome Screen (see example below). In the upper right-hand corner there is a green-lettered link that says, “Create a Free Account.” Click on it with your left mouse button to take the next step.

On the “Create a Free Account” page, you will need to fill in the required information and follow the directions. Most people will want to write down their Username and Password on a separate piece of paper and keep in a secure place for later use. To complete your registration, you must click the ‘Create Account’ button at the bottom of the registration form.

What Do I Do After I Set Up My Account?

Once you have registered your account(s) through a library or libraries, you can access netLibrary in any of the following ways:

1. At any Quad-LINC Library location, click on the netLibrary logo—you may click here or on the one below. You can read all eBooks from a library computer. Or —IMPORTANT: The library where you set up your NetLibrary account and the ‘Location’ for the eBook in the ‘Record Display’ must be the same.

2. At your home, office, or any non-library internet computer, go to:  http://www.netlibrary.com  and log into your personal NetLibrary account  You must use the account(s) you created when you signed up at a library computer.

3. You can also find eBooks through the Quad-LINC catalog    .  Select an electronic resource to read. On the eBook’s Record Display just click the picture of the chain link (It looks like this ) to open up your eBook. Again, if you are accessing the eBook from a non-library computer you will need to log in with your Username and Password for the account you set up at a library in order to view or check out the book.
    

For more assistance, you can click on the “Help” tab on NetLibrary’s Home Page.  Or, if you are still confused and have questions, you can ask a Rock Island Public Librarian for further help.

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Center, Inc., is the leading provider of eBooks and Internet-based content management services for the institutional library market. netLibrary develops, archives, hosts, and maintains eBook collections for thousands of academic, corporate, public, and school libraries throughout the world.