E-Books and E-Audio
What do I need to use BorrowBox?
A Bradford Libraries membership card and PIN, and an internet connection to complete your registration.
Once you have downloaded your eAudiobooks and eBooks an internet connection is not required to view them
If you are using BorrowBox for the first time you will be prompted to register for an account. If you already have a BorrowBox account you will be taken straight to the main page.
Access BorrowBox eBooks and eAudiobooks
Getting started
The easiest way to access free eBooks and eAudiobooks is through the BorrowBox app. iPhone and iPad users should download the app from the App Store, and Android users should download the app from Google Play Store.
Kindle Fire is the only model of Kindle that currently access the BorrowBox service. The BorrowBox app is now available on the Amazon Appstore and can be installed on Kindle Fire devices with just a few taps. You can download the BorrowBox app here.
Once you have followed the instructions and install the app choose "Bradford Libraries" from the list of libraries and then register using your library card number and your PIN.
BorrowBox works with eReaders such as Kobo and Nook (Kindle users should see the above section). Make sure that you have installed Adobe Digital Editions on to your PC. If you haven't installed this software yet, please visit the Adobe Digital Editions download page and follow the installation instructions provided. On first launch of Adobe Digital Editions click on Help > Authorize Computer. In the following screen choose Adobe ID from the drop down menu and enter your Adobe ID and password. If you don't have an Adobe ID yet click on the Create an Adobe ID link on the right hand side or visit the Adobe login website and click on Get an Adobe ID.
What next?
Once you have installed the BorrowBox app on your device you will need to register using the following steps:
Go to the "Please select your library" option and start typing Bradford, you will need to select: Bradford Libraries and log in with your library card number and PIN.
Your PIN follows this format: first two digits of your date of birth, followed by the last two digits of the year of birth. For example, if you were born on 5 December 1974, your PIN would be 0574.
When you submit all of this information you will be asked to "Agree" to the terms and conditions. Once you have clicked on "Agree" you will be taken through to the app where you can browse, borrow, download and reserve eBooks and eAudiobooks
E Magazines
We also provide a range of e-magazines, which you can access if you are a member of the library.
Free e-book sites
Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free books on the internet. You'll find novels, poetry, short stories, and drama, but also cookbooks, reference works and issues of periodicals. Most are in English, but there are also large numbers in many other languages. All the works featured are out of copyright in the US. You can browse by author or title or search if you know what you're looking for. The top 100 lists the most popular. All books at Project Gutenberg are available as ePub, Kindle, HTML and text documents.
The content is similar to Project Gutenberg, thousands of public domain e-books available for free, but there are a few extras. It looks and feels more like an online bookstore, with cover art, reviews and descriptions. You can download in lots of different formats, including ePub, Kindle, PDF and text.
Lists over 1 million free books available on the Web. You can search or browse by author, title or recently added. Features include a celebration of women writers and banned books online. Includes a list some of the major sources free online texts in all languages.
Internet Archive Text Archive.
Download free books and texts. The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.
Open Library Accessible Books.
Over a million e-books.
Google Book search lets you search the full text of books, the same way as a web search. Enter a search term and you'll get a list of matching results. Click on a book result and you will be able to see anything from a few short extracts to the entire book. If the book is out of copyright you will be able to look through the book from start to finish. If it is in the public domain you can download a pdf copy.
All 4,000 National Academies Press titles are available to download as pdfs free as of 2 June 2011. You don’t have to register, but it’s quicker if you do.
Claims to be the fastest growing site for downloading and publishing e-books.
Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature.
Luminarium provides texts from several periods of English Literature. Including Medieval, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century and Restoration and Eighteenth century. Each author has an entry that includes works, biography, criticism, quotations and links.
The British Library's Turning the Pages project allows you to view precious manuscripts from the Library's collections. Using interactive animations, you can turn the pages in a realistic way, zoom in on the images and read or listen to notes explaining each page. Highlights include Sketches by Leonardo, Mozart's Musical Diary and The original Alice. You will need the Shockwave Plug-in to turn the pages (alternative versions are available).