No Shelf Required 2 by Polanka Sue

Author:Polanka, Sue [Polanka, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: non-fiction
ISBN: 9780838993859
Publisher: ALA Editions
Published: 2012-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

E-book Providers: New Players, Major Developments

Over the past few months, the sector has changed rapidly, and further changes are likely in the near future. As markets and players in those markets shake out, being familiar with the myriad issues will help libraries uncover, find, and even create better deals and systems for e-book and e-reader use. There have been a number of developments in 2011 of interest to public libraries.

Currently, OverDrive remains the strongest player in the public library e-book market, having made many technological advances in recent months, including launching mobile apps for Apple’s iOS, Droid, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry. While those apps have added functionality and reduce the reliance on Adobe Content Server, the company’s biggest advance was a deal that will allow Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, and Kindle apps, to use OverDrive e-books. A major gap in OverDrive’s services was the ability to provide e-books to the most popular e-reader on the market. What’s more, the deal will not require the library to allocate additional dollars for yet another e-book format or to add the Kindle to their offerings (Estrovich 2011). That is not to say the addition of the Kindle will not represent increased costs: when the service goes live, a new group of e-book readers will draw on collections that have the restrictions of OverDrive’s one-user/one-checkout e-book lending model. With that will come further pressure to acquire more copies of e-book titles.

Another development at OverDrive is its work on an e-reader certification program, which was a recommendation of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) report on e-books (2010). COSLA wanted the company to indicate which devices were compatible with library e-book services. According to David Burleigh, OverDrive’s director of marketing, the company developed specifications for e-readers after consulting libraries with a view to designing and manufacturing devices that libraries would acquire and lend. OverDrive took the specifications to devices manufacturers in China. But the certification program has been delayed by a couple of changes in the technologies involved in delivering e-books to patrons. First, a new version of Adobe Content Server (ACS)—the system that handles the digital rights management for e-books in OverDrive’s system—is pending. ACS, long criticized by users and librarians alike for the complications it adds to the e-book lending process, is expected to undergo improvements that will benefit libraries and their patrons. Second, OverDrive’s own apps have significantly increased device compatability with library e-books. The program is still developing, but when it is announced it may not reflect the original goal. The company’s main objective is to improve user experience.

Plans to launch a cloud-based e-book lending system were announced by 3M Library Systems at the ALA Annual Conference in June 2011. The service includes touch screen devices for within libraries, special e-reader apps for mobile devices, and its own e-readers (Toor 2011).

The e-book collections of NetLibrary, acquired by EBSCO in 2010, were migrated into the EBSCOhost database platform in 2011 so that e-books could be searched along with other content. The

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