The surprising thing about USAREUR overseas libraries

In case you haven't been to your overseas library....please go and check it out!  Yes, you can check out not only books (and they are not the old dusty things that were here in the 1970s)....yes, bestsellers too...but also DVDs (at our local SHAPE Library, you can rent both European and US region DVDs), Blu-rays and many games for whatever gaming system you have at home, including the Nintendo DS.  We are also lucky to have a nice library at Chievres Air Base as well, and the best part is that you can check out things from both and return them to either library, regardless of which one you got it from.  But wait...there's more....

Bring your ID card to get signed into the system...both Chievres and SHAPE (and all USAREUR libraries) are on the same system and card catalog online.  You'll get a username and password and can access the card catalog at home as well as many online databases and resources.  You can even request items through Inter Library Loan (ILL), where they will send the items from any of the USAREUR libraries, to include the ones as far away as our Italy base and post locations...wow.  USAREUR also does not skimp on the latest bestsellers....you'll find those too.  You'll have the ability to put all these items on hold and then get email notifications when they come in (and which library, Chievres or SHAPE, you'd like to pick them up from).  Of course you'll also get an email when your items are late, and they make it really easy to renew those items on line.  Best of all, there are NO LATE FEES, and the worst that can happen is you won't be allowed to PCS or move without clearing your debts from the library.  I hate to admit it myself, but we lost a DVD at our last USAREUR location, and all I had to do was provide a receipt from Amazon where I had re-ordered the exact same DVD with the library's mailing address as the intended recipient (great idea actually).  My husband never let me live that one down, but if that's the worst thing I lose.....then I think I'm doing okay.

One thing that I have also discovered online, is the Army Digital Media Library and also Netlibrary from within the USAREUR library catalog.  It sounds like a great idea....you can rent DRM protected audiobooks, videos and ebooks....great idea...but the collection absolutely SUCKS! 

I hate to say that, but I hope that they think about getting a wider selection of items.  On the one hand, I watched a great documentary of a unit that fought at Normandy, but in the same shopping cart, I downloaded a horror movie that has got to be the campiest thing I ever saw about a group of folks traveling thru Texas who stay in a B&B in the middle of a killing spree freakshow basically....maybe it had some kind of artistic value...I don't know...as people died in some awfully interesting ways....or should I say were killed.  You can also download the items to mp3 players and ebook readers, as long as they can read the formats listed for the items in the digital library. 



All you need is your library username and password and choose "Europe" on the dropdown menu to make sure you access the correct system.  Once your rental period is up (up to 21 days) the items will magically disappear from your computer, so make sure you read them...and also keep them in a wishlist on the site as there is no record (at least that I could see) of what you checked out before.  I had a hard time finding a book title I didn't get to finish.

How do you like your library at your location?  Do you have any library tips to share?