Recent Comments
- Amazon’s book city #1, Alexandria, VA, may cut library hours: Time for a digital-era national endowment to help ease U.S. libraries’ financial woes? | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ LibraryCity.org. [...] }
- Promising DPLA debut—but please don’t confuse special-collection items, exhibits and APIs with a full-fledged ‘public library’ demo | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ librarycity.org. [...] }
- Tom Peters { Excellent review of the nascent D(P)LA e-resource. I agree with all your major points. Tis a pity that the usual suspects (Twain, Fitzgerald, Cather, et... } – Apr 19, 11:28 AM
- Online la Digital Public Library of America, che vuole superare Google e Wikipedia | Tropico del Libro { [...] di questo ambizioso progetto. Non sono mancate, in questo senso, le polemiche di chi ha vivamente esortato i creatori della DPLA a preoccuparsi anche... }
- David Rothman { Thanks for such a prompt and classy reply, Dan---you're indeed giving #dpla its due! I truly truly hope that the DPLA succeeds, and meanwhile the... } – Mar 31, 11:58 AM
- Dan Cohen { Thanks for the great and helpful post, David. To be clear on #2, I'm very interested (as I know others are within DPLA) and plan... } – Mar 31, 10:40 AM
- David Rothman { Hi, Don. Nice to see such enthusiasm from a veteran school librarian. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, agree with your priorities, and will have more to... } – Mar 26, 4:57 AM
- Don Smith { If I might, I would like to propose a statement of purpose for the National Digital Library. Often times during my forty year career as... } – Mar 25, 8:54 PM
- David Rothman { Hey, Ralph, here's a belated but heartfelt reply to one of your points. Around here we love both libraries and librarians and are interested in... } – Mar 13, 9:58 AM
- Some news from LibraryLand | not so quiet { [...] this opinion piece, David Rothman makes a case for folks in the Warren Buffet and Bill Gates income bracket to support [...] }
- Bibliotecas públicas sin libros en EE.UU. ¿A la de tres? | Bibliotecas 2029 { [...] comunicada, tuvo una contestación pública demoledora. No sólo los profesionales de todo el país se escandalizaron por este proyecto sino que los propios usuarios... }
- A National Digital Library Endowment { [...] An interesting concept from blogger David Rothman, founder of TeleRead. He suggests that those who have signed The Giving Pledge (though he doesn’t mention... }
- David Rothman { Hi, Robert. Some quick replies… 1. I envision a variety of business models in use, but if nothing else, libraries could buy multiple e-copies (or... } – Feb 20, 2:05 PM
- Robert Nagle { Generally, a great proposal, but here are some practical issues which pop up in my mind. First, if everything is centralized, when I put a... } – Feb 20, 12:56 PM
- ATG Article of the Week: Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer | Against-the-Grain.com { [...] Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer, is an thought provoking article by David Rothman posted in TeleRead a few... }
- Reading about eReading this week 2/18/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] A national digital library endowment: How America’s billionaires could be modern Carnegies for rea... [...] }
- Reading about eReading this week 1/28/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] Dwarf-sized public e-libraries vs. abundance: Listen to veteran publishing guru Brian O’Leary and ... [...] }
- David Rothman { You're welcome, Anthony. Keep us posted if you can Amy-ize your new Fire without installing a full-strength version of Android. David } – Jan 19, 5:46 PM
- Anthony { Thanks Dave! } – Jan 19, 4:47 PM
- David Rothman { Hi, Anthony. Some possibilities: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/where-to-get-more-help-with-your-kindle.html Happy Kindling, David } – Jan 19, 4:00 AM
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Recent Posts
- On Jillian the Tiger Cub, a national digital library endowment, and the power of the American ego
- E-book usability news: Adjustable line spacing now on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” and perhaps other Fire HDs—although I still can’t narrow the spaces sufficiently
- Voice Dream e-reading app: Stellar for text to speech—and promising as a general reader
- Amazon’s book city #1 avoids cuts in library hours but still might reduce its library book budget—already below the U.S. per-capita average
- Cut in Alexandria, VA, library hours not needed, says city staff memo. Also: Councilman Justin Wilson endorses LibraryCity’s national digital library endowment plan
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- Harvard's Robert Darnton
- Library Journal
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Tag Archives: OverDrive
Kindle Fire-usable version of OverDrive now in Amazon app store—and a new iOS version offers all-text bold, multiple columns, other capabilities
A Kindle Fire-usable version of the OverDrive e-library app has now reached the Amazon app store. That could give the app’s Android version a nice boost—the Fire is essentially an Android machine turned into an Amazon cash register. Fire owners earlier had to go to the OverDrive site to download the app unofficially. But for [...]
New easy-to-use iOS app works with library-owned e-books and eliminates need for browser-based downloads
The innovative Douglas County Libraries system in Colorado has done it again—with the release of a new iOS app for iPads, iPhones and presumably Touches and the forthcoming iPad Mini. Significantly, the app makes it a snap to check out library books, without forcing you to download through a Web browser. Talk about the path [...]
eBooks
Also tagged DCL, digital libraries, digital library, Douglas County Libraries, e-books, ebooks
5 Comments
How I turned my Kindle Fire HD from a cash register and billboard into a good machine for an e-book lover
H.L. Mencken, the American iconoclast, depicted Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Could the same idea apply to the killjoys at Amazon who so cruelly made the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire HD less of an e-book machine and more of a billboard and cash register? Granted, many readers might not [...]
LibraryCity
Also tagged Amazon, digital libraries, Fire HD, H.L. Mencken, Jeff Bezos, Kindle Fire, libraries, tablet, tablet computers
8 Comments
Updated: OverDrive alternative: How a savvy Colorado library system owns e-books for real, saves tax money, and makes the books easier to find than OD does
Update, July/August 2012: Much has changed since the original post. Monique Sendze, who led the Douglas County (Colorado) Libraries technology initiative under Librarian Jamie LaRue, is now working for Bibliotheca in addition to Douglas County. A video telling about system’s trail-blazing is now here and here. “We…now have our Reader App available in the Google Play store—search [...]
eBooks
Also tagged 3M, Bookish, Colorado, Douglas County, Douglas County Libraries, Jamie LaRue, Monique Sendze, PowerWall
2 Comments
OverDrive buyout proposal makes LibraryJournal.com: ‘Not such a crazy idea,’ says DPLA’s John Palfrey
Although I’m still gung ho about the Digital Public Library of America, I retain some of the concerns arising in a recent MIT Technology Review article. For example, how can we reconcile the DPLA’s various goals and serve academic and public library patrons, whose needs and interests may differ sharply? One strategy would be for public libraries, [...]
Harry Potter e-books, OverDrive, the DPLA, Amazon, other topics come up in Bibliotech interview with me
The Bibliotech podcast, based in Ontario, has just posted a two-hour audio interview with me on topics ranging from Harry Potter e-books to OverDrive, the Digital Public Library of America, Library Renewal, and Amazon. Many thanks to Kayhan B, Erin Anderson and Doug Mirams for all the time they put into their super-thoughtful questions. I [...]
ALA, LibraryCity, LibraryCity history, National Digital Public Library
Also tagged Amazon, Amazon-OverDrive, Amazon-OverDrive deal, Buffy J. Hamilton, David Lee King, Digital Public Library of America, Doug Mirams, DPLA, Erin Anderson, Jan Dawson, Kayhan B, Library Renewal, Lisa Carlucci Thomas, Marshall Breeding, Michael Porter, Michael Stephens, Paul Biba, Sarah Houghton, Stephen Abram, Sue Polana
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Attn. DPLA! Pay attention to Colorado and California e-library bypasses of OverDrive and consider your own distribution as much as possible
No secret. LibraryCity wants libraries to take over OverDrive and slash middleman costs. And here’s a great twist—partial inspiration for this already exists. Douglas County Libraries in Colorado is dealing directly with some publishers. The system applies its own Adobe DRM even though OverDrive books are also still available for now (this isn’t a complete [...]
OverDrive gets loan of up to $1M from Ohio county with budget-challenged libraries: Taxpayers unwittingly encouraging online privatization of U.S. library system?
Related: More bargaining power via OverDrive bypasses? In recent years, the cash-strapped public libraries in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have resorted to such economy measures as staff layoffs, trim-backs of branch hours, vexingly higher fines, longer waits for books, and, of course, reductions in acquired titles. The state of Ohio hasn’t boomed, either. Maybe the economy [...]
OverDrive buys Booki.sh cloud service: A test drive of the app from a library patron’s perspective
OverDrive has bought a cloud-based e-book service, Booki.sh—increasing the U.S. e-book distribution company‘s fitness as a potential acquisition by America’s libraries. The Booki.sh buy demonstrates OverDrive’s willingness to upgrade its technology and comes just days after the corporation’s Harry Potter deal. Booki.sh is in Melbourne and is or was Australian owned, further strengthening OverDrive’s international ties, [...]
Your dream reading-app for the DPLA and a national digital library system? Especially with the summer reading slump in mind?
What’s a stellar reading app for the Digital Public Library of America, which wants to pave the way for a national digital library system? Ideally this free app will make it Kindle-easy to read e-books and also tip you off about the paper goodies at your local library. And offer social features—like shared annotations—and let [...]