MP3 players aren’t just for listening to your favourite music artists, or podcasts of your favourite radio shows. You can actually use your MP3 player for educational purposes, or even for entertainment such as fictional reading. Many libraries are now offering their books as MP3 downloads from their websites, meaning no late fees, no damaged books and nobody shooshing you when you laugh out loud at a funny moment.

Oakville Public Library in Canada is now celebrating a year of offering downloadable library books for its patrons. It’s system is called ‘Libraries on the Go’ and lets people download library books via their PC and play them on their computers and MP3 players.

They books they offer include fiction, historical and educational, so you can listen to your favourite fictional author while working out at the gym, or you could learn a second language while riding your bike to work.

The download service doesn’t limit patrons who download the audio books, allowing them to freely transfer them to other devices, including Smartphones and PDA devices.

In the next few months the OPL will be offering downloads that can be played on iPods as well as MP3 players.

Anthony Murphy has been using the OPL service for some time now:

I was introduced to the Libraries on the Go service last year and I use it a lot when I commute. I have listened to many books this year, only possible through the downloadable service as I cannot find time to sit down and read. I would highly recommend the service to anyone who wants to read and learn but can’t quite find the time.