Library Acquires “Overdrive” Allowing Downloads Of Audiobooks And eBooks
On Monday, the Richardson Public Library switched on “Overdrive”, which is an online service that offers access to best-selling and classic audiobooks and eBooks all day, every day from the Library’s website.
Anyone can browse the collection, but a Richardson Library Card is required to check out a selection. The books can be downloaded to computers and many mobile devices, and some audio titles can also be burned to CD. Titles automatically expire at the end of the lending period, meaning there are no late fees. A link to the site is available in the Related Links section.
Then a few minutes ago this pops up online -- "HarperCollins to libraries: we will nuke your ebooks after 26 checkouts":
LibraryGoblin sez, "HarperCollins has decided to change their agreement with e-book distributor OverDrive. They forced OverDrive, which is a main e-book distributor for libraries, to agree to terms so that HarperCollins e-books will only be licensed for checkout 26 times. Librarians have blown up over this, calling for a boycott of HarperCollins, breaking the DRM on e-books--basically doing anything to let HarperCollins and other publishers know they consider this abuse."
A little
The OverDrive service page at RPL doesn't say so, but there is one open platform
player available: an Android client is available on the official overdrive page.
[I should point out that completely DRM-free ebooks and audiobooks are available, legal, and free elsewhere online. You can help prepare free ebooks for publishing by volunteering your keen proofreading skills.]
2 comments:
As you pointed out, there are a huge number of free ebooks, most of them free because they are old enough to have aged past copyright restrictions. For recently published books the library offers ebooks via Overdrive as one alternative to our patrons purchasing on their own. We started with a collection of about 700 and that number will grow over time as we purchase more. There is good online help on the Overdrive web site for this service and library staff are also ready to help folks get started.
The decision this week by HarperCollins to impose a limit of 26 circulations per ebook is troubling. It's started a storm of dialog among librarians nationwide. There is good reasoning behind the limit but the model gets the details wrong. If paper books we purchased from a particular publisher consistently fell apart after 26 circulations we would demand some form of adjustment or would just stop purchasing from that publisher. Hopefully HarperCollins will join in this dialog and business models will be modified to be more useful for all parties in the transaction.
Ebooks have put the publishers, book sellers, libraries, and readers on the cusp of a revolution and it will be fascinating to watch things play out in upcoming years.
Steve Benson
Thanks for the interesting input. You rawk, as the kids say.
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