If you are a Roanoke Valley Library card holder for Roanoke County, Roanoke City, Salem, and Botetourt County libraries you can now check out and download e-books and audiobooks.

Nona Nelson reported that today was the first day of the new service provided by OverDrive Media Console. You can check out an e-book for seven or 14 days to be used on Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Apple’s iPad and iPod. The platform Amazon’s Kindle uses will be available later this year.

They currently have over 1,500 titles, which includes both e-book and audiobook and will be expanding.

It’s easy to check out books. Go to http://elib.rvl.info, browse and download to computer. You can read straight from your computer or transfer to an eReader device.

Nona also reported that author Sharyn McCrumb will be at a kickoff reception to introduce patrons to the website and available options on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the main library on Jefferson Street.

I’m excited by this news. This is perfect timing. I’m going on vacation next week and will need to load up on books. I take extras because I never know what I’ll be in the mood once I get there.

What about you? Will you be using this service?