Library book downloads picking up

Thanks to Mr. Backwage for This
One from the Chicago Tribune. They report that A month ago, the
Chicago Public Library quietly added a link to its Web site and waited
for the tech savvy bibliophiles. “New! Download Audio Books,” the link
promised since March 15. That first day, 72 titles were downloaded to
home computers and MP3 players from chipublib.org. By the end of week
two, 617 titles were checked out, and the numbers were promising
enough that library officials doubled their initial $25,000 investment
to buy more titles. The collection jumped to 1,300 downloadable
titles.

April 29, 2006 by Uncategorized 7

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7 Responses

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    April 29, 2006 at 9:41 pm

    iPod Users Disenfranchised
    The files downloadable from the Chicago Public Library are not MP3 files but protected WMA files. Thus only WMA readers will render them. iPod users are not capable of rendering WMA files and its users are disenfranchised from the Overdrive product unless they are really technically savy.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous Patron says:
    April 30, 2006 at 9:11 am

    Re:iPod Users Disenfranchised
    That was my immediate reaction, too. The Boston Public Library offers downloads in the same proprietary format, and I am unable to make use of them because neither my iPod nor my Treo support WMA.

    If the audiobook folks insist on using DRM, libraries should at least demand that they provide support for Apple’s standard as well as Microsoft’s. After all, there are more than two million iPod users out there waiting for services like this.

    Reply
  3. sarahmae says:
    May 1, 2006 at 10:11 am

    Re:iPod Users Disenfranchised
    It’s the same in my system as well but they are talking about switching to Overdrive which is compatible with iPods. And if you want classic books, there is always Librivox.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous Patron says:
    May 1, 2006 at 2:53 pm

    Re:iPod Users Disenfranchised by OVERDRIVE
    WRONG! OVERDRIVE is the system in use at both the Chicago Public Library and Boston Public Library. Overdrive files are in WMA format which is NOT supported natively on the iPods.

    As always we must be wary of the technical information given out by library personnel.

    Reply
  5. Bonney says:
    May 1, 2006 at 7:54 pm

    Overdrive and Ipod
    If you read the article, it says that Apple will not license to them. We should be contacting iPod and complaining. It’s the same with the netLibrary downloadable audio books that my library has, but netLibrary won’t allow you to put books on CD like Overdrive will. What I don’t know is about wma files vs mp3. Anybody know about this? Netlibrary has a good list of which players will play their books. How about Overdrive? I know for me the big problem is still that I can’t play mp3 in my car, but I think that newer radios have a way to do that.

    Reply
  6. sarahmae says:
    May 1, 2006 at 10:23 pm

    Re:iPod Users Disenfranchised by OVERDRIVE
    Thanks for the correction. We currently use Net Library and one of my coworkers said that the administration was looking into switching to another company and that it would be iPod compatible. Maybe it’s not Overdrive, or maybe they are just mistaken about compatibility.

    We had a discussion about this on YALSA-BK a little while ago. It seems that Apple is not cooperating with the companies that are providing downloadable audiobooks to libraries.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous Patron says:
    May 5, 2006 at 6:04 pm

    Boston Public Lib hides Overdrive limitation
    The following posting from soc.libraries.talk is a much broader comment on the technically bankrupt information being disseminated by libraries concerning the trendy downloadable media they are offering.

    Only if you read the fine print at the end of a PDF on the Boston Public Library web site does the Apple restriction get mentioned.

    Other libraries just ignore this vital information or provide confusing pseudo techno-babble in their pronouncements.

    Fw: Lack of universal public library service. Prominent explanatory information needed at http://bpl.org/

    “Don Saklad” wrote in message news:…
    > Bernie Margolis, Boston Public Library
    > Massachusetts
    > bmargolis at bpl dot com
    >
    > Dear Bernie Margolis,
    >
    > Please put up prominently explanatory information on our public
    > library website at http://bpl.org/ that the videos at
    > http://overdrive.bpl.org/ are not made available to users of nonpc
    > computers!
    >
    > Disclose it prominently clearing up the misunderstanding that our
    > public library services are universally available our public library
    > card holders!
    >
    >
    > Cc:
    > John Arnold, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
    > http://mlin.lib.ma.us/ arnold at reluctant dot com

    Reply

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