THE DAILY LEADER / RACHEL EIDE / Rebecca Nations, Lincoln County Public Library consultant, demonstrates how to download books from the new Axis 360 eBook portal available through the library’s website. Thanks to grant funding, the recently acquired system allows library patrons to check out newly released eBooks by using their library card number.

Local library patrons now have a new option for their reading pleasure – eBooks by best-selling authors.

Thanks to a grant, the Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library and Copiah-Jefferson Regional Library have both added Baker and Taylor’s Axis 360 digital media solution to their library services.

Library patrons can log into the service through their Internet browser by going to their home library’s website at and clicking on the “Axis 360 page” link on the right side of the library home page.

Patrons can access the Axis 360, Freading, and ABDO resources at www.llf.lib.ms.us for Lincoln, Lawrence and Franklin County patrons and www.copjef.lib.ms.us and at cjrlbooksandmore.blogspot.com for Copiah and Jefferson County patrons.

“Each library patron in the system should go to their own library site (and then click on Axis 360) because there are separate collections for each library,” said Rebecca Nations, Lincoln County Public Library consultant.

Once on the Axis 360 “Magic Wall” page, readers will need to log in using their library card number in order to click on eBooks and download them.

Once downloaded, an eBook will stay on the reader’s tablet, smart phone, e-reader or computer for 14 days. “When the 14 days run out, it simply goes away,” said Nations. Readers can “check out” up to three eBooks at a time.

While the library has previously offered and continues to offer free eBooks for download on its site, the new service features recently released and best-selling books, Nations said.

The funding for the new lending service was partially funded under the federal Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Mississippi Library Commission for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The grant covered the software platform and a minimum amount of funding for eBooks, Nations said.

“We’re very excited about it. Getting the grant was wonderful and allowed us to offer this service,” she added.

Readers should also be aware that some of the big name authors’ publishers limit the number of viewings of an eBook, so after the maximum number of checkouts has occurred, it will no longer be available, or the library will have to buy another copy.

“The library’s ability to offer free eBook services to our public is critical to meeting patrons’ recreation and educational access preferences while positioning the library to take advantage of future technologies,” said Copiah-Jefferson Regional Library Director Katrina Castilaw in a press release from the library system announcing the new system.

Axis 360 delivers digital content in EPUB, PDF and Blio formats to PC and Mac computers, laptops and netbooks, to smartphones and tablets running on Android and Apple iOS, and to popular eReaders such as NOOK, Sony Reader and Kobo. Readers who do not already have one of these eBook format options will need to download a free viewer for their device from the app site for the reader software.

“We are pleased to be able to offer Axis 360 to our patrons,” Castilaw said in the press release. The Axis 360 “Magic Wall” can be searched by keyword, browsed by subject, or browsed by genre, such as fiction, non-fiction, juvenile, and young adult, library officials said.

Axis 360 has the additional advantage of being fully compatible with the leading assistive screen-reader technologies that blind people use to interact with computers and the World Wide Web in accordance with the mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act, library officials said.

In addition to the new Axis 360 service, the libraries also offer eBooks through their Freading and ABDO digital bookshelf products.

Patrons may contact their local library branch for assistance using all of the e-reading products on their personal devices.

The Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library has locations in Brookhaven, Monticello, Meadville and New Hebron. Copiah-Jefferson Regional Library has branches in Hazlehurst, Crystal Springs, Fayette, Georgetown and Wesson.