Thing 22 - Overdrive, Project Gutenberg

I've had an Overdrive account for well over a year now, ever since I got a (non-iPod) mp3 player. Back in the days before July 31, I also used NetLibrary. Both are good as far as they go; I always find myself wishing they could go further, but much is out of their control.

The major advantage I find with Overdrive is that you can find a title, download it and sync it to your mp3 player. In some cases you can burn the mp3 file to a CD, essentially letting you keep a title forever, something you can't do with a library's talking CD. Realistically, most folks aren't so into their talking books they want to keep them, but this feature allows them to play the title in their car CD if they can't play their mp3 player through the car stereo system. Me - I use a FM transmitter with my mp3 player when I take long trips if I want to listen to those mp3 (or .wav) files on the car stereo.

The major disadvantages are twofold. One, the list of titles is small and usually not filled with truly available recent releases. A search of Overdrive's "What's New" section reveals more Adobe eBooks than Overdrive audio books, and there wasn't a single audio book available for immediate download, only for placing a hold on one. Those items available for download were not remotely new books. So it's good if you're in the mood for an older title you've missed. Also, the list of authors is necessarily limited (I'm being kind using the word "limited"), which is not the fault of Overdrive itself, but reflects which publishers and authors are available to them in these formats, based on their deals with these sources. Customers, frankly, could care less about these details, only whether or not a title they'd like is available. My 10 title searches yielded 0 (as in zero) titles owned - if I weren't a librarian, I would have concluded by the 3rd or 4th search that Overdrive had nothing to offer me and would have written them off as of no use for my needs. Hopefully the range and number of titles will increase with time. I couldn't find a single title I wanted to download this time through.

Secondly, the requirements in terms of technical skills on the end user are high. Overdrive makes you download and install additional software to get the audio book (or video) you want. Introducing another layer to the process that the customer must go through can and will deter customers from using this service. And I'm not even considering that you then have to be skilled enough to sync your choice through Windows Media Player onto your mp3 player. Granted, after doing it 2-3 times you get familiar enough to stop sweating the details, but a greater transparency to the process (or rather invisibility of the process) would, I suspect, greatly increase the use of this and other downloading systems. Which would you be more likely to do - spend 20-30 minutes figuring out how to install additional software, then obtain, download and sync one audio book (think of the first time you did it), or just go to the library and pick up 3 talking CD's in 10 minutes?

I believe these services will grow over time, that they are in their infancy and experiencing the usual growing pains of any new technology. They will get larger lists of titles and downloading them to your mp3 player will get easier. My suggestion: make it possible to plug your mp3 player into the computer, select your audio book, answer a few questions about your computer and mp3 player, then have the website automate the rest of the process. Plug, Download, Sync, Go!

Project Gutenberg, long predating Google's attempt to digitize the world's books, is the repository for literature that's out of copyright protection. What this means in practice is that, given current copyright law, you'll not see anything written after the 1920's that's available. If you need a copy of Dicken's A Christmas Carol, however, it's right there and yours for the reading or even printing. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this project, limited though it may be as to what it can actually offer.