It’s been coming for months.  Today Penguin announced it has ended its relationship with OverDrive.  Starting tomorrow, it will no longer sell e-books and audiobooks to OverDrive for library lending.  Interestingly, ALA and Big Six publishers met last week to discuss library e-book lending.  In an article in paidcontent.org, Laura Hazard Owen points out ALA’s [...]

[Read more →]

Below is a press release from OverDrive regarding 2011 use stats.  Clearly the demand for library eBooks has increased; “doubled” according to the press release.  While I’m thoroughly impressed by the interest and demand in content, I can’t help but focus on 4 of the statistics below. 1.6 billion book/title pages viewed by 99 million [...]

[Read more →]

eBooks and Audiobooks on EBSCOhost launched this week.  Hopefully you have all received the new url for access to your collections.  I gave my eBook collection a test spin this morning and it worked well.  The interface is very intuitive, particularly for those who are EBSCOhost users.  The same features apply.  Search results are returned [...]

[Read more →]

Great news from Ohio today – the Ohio Metro Library Directors and OverDrive met to discuss various eBook challenges.  OverDrive will launch Overdrive WIN, a series of platform enhancements this June. More from the press release: As a result of unprecedented demand for eBooks, library directors, advocacy groups, and readers challenged leading eBook supplier OverDrive [...]

[Read more →]

More great news for OverDrive users.  The new Windows phone app is available for download from the Windows Phone Marketplace. More from the press release:  Readers at 15,000 public, school, and corporate libraries can now download eBooks and audiobooks directly to their Windows Phone with the free OverDrive® Media Console™ app. This new app enables [...]

[Read more →]

Apologies for the long list, I’ve been away for a week and lots has happened! Ingram Announces New Library Ebook Access Model and Audiobook Shift In the era of ebooks, what is a book worth (I) Is signing with a mainstream publisher now a mistake? Digital book subscriptions, by Jane Litte Publishers Weekly: Librarians at [...]

[Read more →]

From an iPublishCentral press release:  Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization that produces Sesame Street, and Impelsys today announced the launch of the Sesame Street eBookstore iPad app. The app provides access to more than 150 Sesame Street eBooks, which are also available via an online subscription at http://ebooks.sesamestreet.org/. The app is available for free in [...]

[Read more →]

This panel discussion was moderated by Dick Kaser from Information Today.  Speakers included Ken Breen, EBSCO Publishing, Leslie Lees, ebrary, Bob Nardini, Ingram, and Mike Shontz, OverDrive. Each panelist had 5 minutes to discuss who they serve and business models they offer. Ken Breen, EBSCO Publishing Ken reflected back to 1997 – common themes from [...]

[Read more →]

From an OverDrive blog post:  More people are downloading eBooks and more from the library than ever before. Due to this increased usage, many of our public, school, and college library partners have received more questions about the service from first-time patrons. (What software do I need? How do I authorize my device?) We also [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday, OverDrive released updates to the OverDrive Media Console apps for iPhone (iOS) and Android, which include the addition of one-click, automatic downloads and other enhancements to user experience. At the same time, they’ve updated the mobile ‘Virtual Branch’ sites for libraries with a Project Gutenberg collection, enabling access to the 15,000 DRM-free EPUB  eBooks [...]

[Read more →]