Edelweiss

Photo credit: Ian Kennedy

Guest post by Jean Anderson
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No, the title of this post doesn’t refer to the flower, or the song Edelweiss or even the cheese shop in Verona. I’ll explain more shortly.

Many of you know that I’m a HUGE reader (or is that an understatement?) When you receive emails from me, you’ll see that in my signature line I always include what I’m reading (print), listening to, and reading on my NOOK.

You may have noticed that recently, many of the books I’m reading on my NOOK are books that aren’t published yet. For example, I’m currently reading Room No. 10 by Ake Edwardson which is due out in March. Up next are:

• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, due out 3/26/13 
• Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French, due out 4/4/13 
• Cooked by Michael Pollan, due out 4/23/13 

How, you may ask, did I get access to all those ebooks? The answer is Edelweiss. From their website, “Edelweiss is a web-based interactive publisher catalog system that enhances or replaces the use of hard copy catalogs.” In addition, through participating publishers, they offer a way for librarians to request access to Digital Advance Review Copies (ARC). In the past, I’ve come home from conferences loaded with galleys or proofs of books also known as ARCs. Now, I do the same thing - but on my NOOK.

The process is easy. Check out the debut episode of Know More with Jean & Shawn for a demo of Edelweiss, or take a look at the tutorial on the Edelweiss site. Digital ARCs can be read on most all types of e-readers and there’s help on the Edelweiss site for each kind. It’s free, easy and can be very addicting - just ask Shawn!

Comments

[Jane]

I've been using Edelweiss for about six months and have really appreciated it. I've also been using Netgalley to get e-galleys. Netgalley gets the e-galleys directly from the publishers as well, but they aren't set up with the publisher's full catalogs. Another difference between the two is that Netgalley includes smaller presses in addition to the biggies.

It's nice being able to get an early look at books but also tough because when I read something I love I have to wait to talk about it with everyone.

And Jean, I've got Tuesday's Gone in my reading queue as well.