Check it out at library: No e-book overdue fines

We still have lots of neighborhood public libraries in the Hawaii system, but maybe that won’t always be so. Already, through its relatively new electronic book network (hawaii.lib.overdrive.com), the library is starting the move toward e-books replacing bound volumes.

You download a book to your computer, storing it in a freebie program like Adobe Digital, that you also have to install. But like a trial version of software, the book simply disappears at the end of the three-week loan period. If someone else is waiting for it, you go to the end of the line before getting it again.

That’s the bad part. The good part: no overdue fines. For some of us, that means something.

Website helps find your way past foreclosure

Some more help of the virtual kind, though far less pleasurable than reading a book. It’s a visit to Ways Home, the new interactive video help site offered by Fannie Mae to those teetering on the brink of foreclosure.

Run the video at the site (www.knowyouroptions.com/ways-home), and you’ll be invited to role-play, choosing one of three main characters. The video lets you choose what steps to take, but the dialogue guides you to the most productive options.

No, it won’t renegotiate your monthly payment for you, but it could lead you to a real human being who can.