Unit 12: E-books:Audio and Text.

I actually have strong feelings on the subject of audio E-books. It makes me crazy that the Madison Public Library has so few audio E-books that are Mac compatible. I have been deploring this situation for a year. Now I finally understand it (at least the logistics, if not the overall business decision).

So, Madison Public Library uses OverDrive. OverDrive audio books come in a WMA format. The WMA format has DRM built in, and is not compatible with Apple. However, iPods have a huge share of market for portable audio file players. Because there is such a demand, Overdrive has started providing MP3 files for some books. Apparently the publishers have to agree to having their books available in this format, because the MP3 files are not DRM protected. So you can keep the MP3 file, burn them to cd, etc. After you have checked out a title for a week, a message starts popping up that looks like this:



It is a *soft restriction*, it discourages saving of the file. However, if you don't click delete, and click cancel instead, the item remains in your library (Note--I just tried this once. The prompt pops up every time, and I hit delete the next time around). Like most people, I am not all that interested in filling my media library up with books I have already listened to. I just want access in the first place.

An additional, interesting note is that Steve Jobs takes an anti-DRM stance, although iTunes/iPod also were using DRM protections, built in to the iTunes software. Jobs said that iTunes had to provide DRM protection, so that major labels would sell on iTunes. Currently iTunes has started selling DRM-free music, although it is still difficult to transfer music from ipod to ipod. Again, soft restrictions still exist.


Some of the readings for this week talked Overdrive and some of the other popular audio book providers that libraries can subscribe to. The articles evaluated the different providers through several different criteria.
The popular providers include:

• Audible http://www.audible.com/Over 85,000 titles available.
• Overdrive http://www.overdrive.com/. Integrates with ILS, MARC records provided. over 300,000 titles (includes ebooks, audio books, music and video). Madison Public Library offers about 5,000 titles of audio books in WMA format, and about 400 audio books in MP3 format.
• NetLibrary http://library.netlibrary.com/Home.aspx. 200,00 eBooks, over 5,000 audio books
• TumbleTalking Books and Read-a-longs. http://www.tumblebooks.com 400 titles. Unlimited use model. Subscribing libraries get a link (but do not own titles), Tumble provides support and maintenance of catalog.
  
• Playaway http://library.playaway.com/. Over 7400 titles available. 2500 titles available from Madison Public Library.

Criteria for provider evalution:
The articles read for this unit provided evaluation for audio and ebook providers under a set of criteria. It seems important to note that things are rapidly changing, so a re-evaluation of all providers should be done. For example, in the 2007 article by Peters, Audible is said to have 14,000 audio books. Currently Audible's website claims 85,000 titles are available. And Peters notes that Overdrive only carries WMA format files, but currently Overdrive also provides some MP3 files.

Here are the criteria listed in the Peters article:

• Number of titles, and rate of growth (or shrinkage)
• Collection strengths and focuses
• Age of content: Public domain titles, recent releases. etc.
• Content characteristics: Narrators, abridged vs. non abridged, sound quality
• Format: MP3, WMA, etc.
• Technical support
• Use model (library owned: one user/title or leased: one user/title or unlimited users)
• Statistics--are they provided?
• Licensing and agreement terms
• Cost components: annual fees, devices, etc.
• Administrative modules
• Integration with library system and collections

It seems wise to decide what would work best for your library before investing in a provider. The Madison Public Library uses both Overdrive and Playaway, which is nice because it provides for the needs of a variety of users.

References:

Bruno, Antony. "Stop Throwing Stones." Billboard 117.17 (2005): 10. Print.

Gideon, Tim. "Apple's DRM-Free Music: 8 Things You should Know." ExtremeTech.com (2009)Print.

Thomas A. Peters “Comparison Points and Decision Points” Chapter 2 in Digital Auidobook Services through Libraries. Library Technology Reports vol 43 no 1. ALA Techsource, 2007.

Peters, T., Bell, L., & Sussman, D. B. (July/August 2005). “An Overview of Digital Audio Books for Libraries.” Computers in Libraries, 25(7), 6-8, 61-64.

Wolverton, Troy. "Jobs Assails Music Labels: APPLE CEO URGES INDUSTRY TO DROP COPY LIMITS." McClatchy - Tribune Business News (2007): 1. Print.