Audiobooks discussion
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Overdrive only for local library?
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Smallo
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Nov 09, 2013 11:09AM
On overdrive are you restricted only to your local library? No digital equivalent of interlibrary loan?
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I am a member of two libraries on OD (I paid a membership fee to the second library).
Depends on where you live. All of the library systems in our state (MN) have OneClickDigital e-audiobook membership through the statewide library consortium. Some larger library systems also get Overdrive's audiobooks as well. Each system's selection differs depending on their budgets.We do not have an interlibrary loan equivalent for e-books or e-audiobooks. Almost every individual library system in our state has now created policies that no one outside their service area can check out e-books or e-audiobooks from their system, and none offer the option to pay for a membership, which is a bummer for those of us in a system with limited e-book and e-audiobook selection. Hence the reason I mostly just get CD's...I can tap the interlibrary loan system for those.
Smallo wrote: "On overdrive are you restricted only to your local library? No digital equivalent of interlibrary loan?"My Overdrive & Kindle library books (MA) are available in a mix of local and regional availability (a few Kindle & audiobooks are restricted to a single town). I can also check out those items from the Boston public library system even though I live 25 miles away - I had to register and give them my local library card info, so it is sort of like a digital inter-library loan. This was available for free.
Joy wrote: "I have found a number of books that my library shows as available via Overdrive when I look at the main catalog, but when I look on the app it says downloading is disabled for my device (iphone). H..."This is most likely because the audiobooks are only available in the WMA format, which the iPhone cannot play. When I search my library's audiobook selections from my iMac, WMA only titles are always excluded. It took me a while to figure this out, too.
Joy wrote: "I have found a number of books that my library shows as available via Overdrive when I look at the main catalog, but when I look on the app it says downloading is disabled for my device (iphone). H..."This is happening more now. Very irritating as I have to use the computer to check out the book and then transfer it to my iPod. Overdrive does do some sort of conversion to allow WMA books to play on my iPod.
I work in libraries and the deal with electronic resources being shared between libraries is tricky. It's different if a bunch of libraries in an area (statewide, regionally, etc.) have reciprocal lending agreements. But the libraries pay for subscriptions and certain packages within those databases (like overdrive) based in part on their usership. So lending to partons outside of that probably violates the agreement with the vendor, and also makes the books less available to their own patrons. I work in ILL at an academic library and we're actually required to keep track of what we borrow, and if we request copies too often from the same journal/periodical repeatedly we are required to subscribe to it.
Joy, You should be able to download books directly to your iPod. Make sure you are connected and that the download feature is "on" and it should start downloading files right away. You press the arrow in the circle in the upper right to turn downloads off and on - in the files menue. Make sure your General Settings under 'settings' are on for Cellular download, Automatic Downloads and Show current title when app starts.
In Oregon we have a statewide consortium for the digital library which nearly all the larger libraries (many in small cities that have strong community support) are a part of. The very large libraries are allowed, likely because of a greater ability to purchase, more copies and a bit wider selection. We can purchase memberships to a larger library but how much better the selection is I have not checked in to. I have a NOOK and an iPhone and have no problem with either when checking out audiobooks but one must use the mp3 format. Neither would take the wma as that is just for pc's though currently there is a larger selection in that format, but I do see this older formatting style changing. I don't have to connect to the computer for downloading books as the wifi connection works just fine. My biggest problem now is trying to get overdrive to download onto my MacBook Pro.
I have also noticed that libraries don't seem to be keeping up their selections of audiobooks. I'm unsure why though from various posts here on GR, I suspect the almighty dollar has something to do with it.
Since this thread started, I went back to my Overdrive help page to see about the WMA. It says that WMA audiobooks must be downloaded to a computer but can then be transferred to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
I read audio books from the library through Overdrive on my iPhone all the time. You just have to make sure the book is in mp3 format, not WMA.
I purchased a player that would accept MP3 and had the licensing for WMA. It was a little more than then the regular MP3 players but now I can download any audio book through Overdrive.
I haven't used Overdrive a whole lot. I've downloaded audiobooks from the SYNC summer freebies the last two years, and a couple from my library. So far, I obviously haven't run into the mp3/wma problem. Maybe I was just lucky.
Joy wrote: "My library's collection has actually grown a lot. I guess it is the wma format that is giving me problems. I'm curious if my android tablet can handle that format but I haven't tried."My Kindle Fire can't, and it is basically an android tablet, so I suspect that it won't work on yours either. But transferring from the computer in more annoying than difficult.
I read somewhere that Overdrive intends to drop WMA altogether.
After the trouble I had attempting unsuccessfully to listen to one of that WMA format, they probably should. John wrote: "I read somewhere that Overdrive intends to drop WMA altogether."
John wrote: "I read somewhere that Overdrive intends to drop WMA altogether."My only problem with that would be that it seems that when I've downloaded from Overdrive, the WMA format seems to take a whole lot less space than mp3, allowing me to have several more books on my Sansa at a time than just with mp3. But that may just be individual books I've had, so I'm not sure.
Here's a link to the Overdrive blog posting on dropping WMA:http://blogs.overdrive.com/front-page...
My concern with that is that more than half the books available on audio at the library are only available in WMA format at the moment. It would sure cut down on my selection.
WMA is far more compressed than mp3, so yes those books are far smaller; I have a storage card in my Sansa for extra space.
