LibraryTechtonics

The OverDrive rep, whose name I didn’t catch, is totally charismatic.

Think of it as a branch of your library, it will become a new branch of your library. 11p-midnight: #1 reported circ hour at NYPL, and NYPL is reporting more digital downloads than actual IRL (in real life) circs.

You can transfer chunks to your MP3 player, which means that cheaper players with less space and still keep their music on there. As an added bonus, 85-90% books are burnable to CD, which is something they negotiated carefully with publishers, and a nice perk. Also, most (not all) of the movies in the collection come with public performance rights, so you can show them at your library.

OverDirve is a Virtual Coke Machine, put anything you want in it: ebooks, audiobooks, any author, any genres, any *publisher*, local original content (historical, community, author talks). The BPL is working on putting music from local bands in their OverDrive collection, and other libraries are doing similar stuff. Also, the content varies from fiction, nonfiction, how-to, foreign language, For Dummies books, Nolo content, and more. Ooooo, the foreign language enhanced downloads include not only the audio of the language book, but also .pdf worksheets to do the exercises along with the audio. Too hot. Games are currently in beta.

A shared collection is in the queue (just worked out by OverDrive in the last week), so that member libraries can share collection content locally *and* nationally, like a WorldCat of actual national content. Hot!

He now extols the benefits of the OverDrive interface. It is spiffy, I say sooth, because I’ve used it. The usability of the OverDrive application interface is nifty, as is the fact that OverDrive has its own site and checkout system. They offer MARC records for the catalog, which “aren’t as robust as the NetLibrary records,” according to our presenter, but really, it may not need to be to serve patrons. Simple is good, as long as it works.

Image Entertainments: good option for getting started with downloadable video, because they have good options and packages.

For a library network, the best bet is to go in as a group, because it’s cost prohibitive to do an individual subscription for a small library. When you go in as a consortium, you must agree to a common set of rules, like borrowing periods, maximum checkouts, etc. Also, buying needs to be worked out on a network level, since you can buy multiple copies of a book (it’s a one-book-one-patron-one-checkout system), and as our presenter says, “Everyone does it differently.”

In his experience, people *love* to see book jackets. One library added 4 book cover shots on their OverDrive home page where there were previously none, and their audiobook circs doubled. Then, they went to 8 book jackets, and the circs doubled again. This kept happening until they left off with 35 book jackets on their OverDrive home page, and the patrons love it. They love the pictures, they love the visuals, and they *love* the guidance (recommended reads, staff picks, what’s hot now).

It takes about 10-12 weeks to get an OverDrive system customized, loaded, up and running (about 6 weeks to an opening day collection, which can be imported from a list with little effort). Then, there’s content reserve training on the administrative interface, and there are a few weeks where the system is released only the the librarians for some usability-ish tested, then it goes public.

OverDrive also doesn’t work with the iPod (Apple, btw, hasn’t been at any ALA conference for a while… so much for embracing the library eaudiobook market ::sigh::). However, if I understand this guy, you can burn a burnable file to a CD then rip it to the right file format. I could be wrong, he’s a bit hard to follow, and there are a lot of questions flying around.

Leasing and managing The Coke Vending Machine (server space, configured system, etc.) is $1,000/month. Then, you buy stuff to stoke your Coke Machine. I believe content can be purchased at a decent discount, with percentages varying from publisher to publisher (15-60% off, if I remember the slide right).

OK, in my previous post, I said I wouldn’t get too specific. I lied. This post has a lot of specific stuff.
Roger Corriveau of Recorded Books is a funny, entertaining gent speaking about the new MyLibraryDV service, which just launched about a month ago. It’s much like subscribing to cable, where there’s a basic package, or you can upgrade to the more “Hollywood-type stuff.”

Before I get into the details of the packages, and the sales sheet type stuff, some observations I want to float on top…

Grab ‘em before you lose ‘em: Netflix is going to start offering downloadable video. Wongo and Movielink already made downloading popular. Amazon, WalMart, and other online stores offer downloads that last only 24 hours. So, this is an opportunity for libraries to not lose this market to capitalism, a salient point Roger made later in the presentation. Unfortunately, the packages are really, really expensive, and there is no option for consortia to go in on a group deal, so it may be an instance where cost will keep libraries from doing something progressive. Also, the service is *not* available for academic libraries, the licensing doesn’t allow it.

“Because what do we know”: Not only has Recorded Books hired a producer to work on their original content (see below), they’ve hired a PR person to promote the service for the first time ever in Recorded Books history. I *love* that. Libraries need to learn from this, to bring in outside folks to help the library where it’s lacking, and make the knowledge transferable from the outside industries to librarianship.

OK, Sales Sheet commences now –

The basic package includes:

* Classic (32) Independent/Foreign (20) feature films

* Travel programs - Globe Trekker, etc.

* Cooking shows - Julia Child, etc.

* Health and Wellness - working on fitness video, yoga, pilates, etc.

* How-To progamming - including Antiques Road Show!

* Original productions - produced by MyLibraryTV, developed by a 4-time Emmy award winning producer, “because what do we know?”

* Contributed Video Content from subscriber libraries - YouTube for libraries! Kinda. What you upload becomes part of your subscription. So if an author comes for a book talk, and you record it on video, and using the prefab authorization forms from Recorded Books, you’re all set. Subscriber libraries will see the nationwide pool of library content. This would be awesome for recording classes, screencasts, author talks, events, everything! (Uploading is *not* instant. You send them the video on DVD or digital file, and it takes 3 weeks to upload. Not as instant as YouTube, and not as wide an audience since it’s limited to MyLibraryDV subscribers. However, they *can* do some editing for you.)

How does it work?
Patrons need a download manager, a la Overdrive, a 2 minute download. Authentication is by barcode only, plain and simple.

This is on-demand, simultaneous access with progressive download (you can start watching the video before it’s done downloading). So, you must have high speed, broadband internet.

Licensed content, exclusive to their market, so no one can sell you what they have. Patron can download up to 10 packages for up to 7 days.

The interface is sexy, slick, simple, and *visual*. Videos are not burnable, nor can they be downloaded to a portable device. The video isn’t exactly DVD quality for everything (he showed us a movie and a Julia Child cooking show episode).

What libraries get:
* Subscription for access (over 450 hours of content to start)
* Package of upload hours for local content
* Download hours
* Customized web site
* Administrative site: stats, content control, customer service, tech support, all planned network additional video content at no additional charge (entire database for one price)
* Free MARC records
* Marketing materials package

Basic pricing:
They’re currently offering a deal on all their packages, where you get 1/2 off for the first year, but the discount expires next week (prices reflect discount):
Category 2 library (100k+ circ, 500k+ population): $1325, 26 upload hours
Category 1 library (>100,000 circs): $500

May 1 is the next start date.

Hollywood Favorites
* 700+ DVDs to start

* Unlimited simultaneous access, no platform fee

* Feature films, TV shows, and *British* TV

* Need the basic package to get the Hollywood package

Each patron gets 1 movie in each 24-hour period, and the same movie can’t be downloaded more than 2x in a 6-month period. 24 hours starts from 1st play of file, multiple views available within that 24 hours, like RCN Video On-Demand and Pay-Per-View.

Cat 2 library: 100,000+ circs, $4000 annual, 1600 downloads, $2.50/download
Cat 1 library: >100,000 circs, $2000 annual, 800 downloads

Hollywood Hits!
* 55 films that feature what’s out now

* DV simultaneous drop with DVD in stores and rental places

* List changes every month, about 5 films come off and 6 go on, like HBO or a leasing plan for films. They’re working out the final negotiations for this package.

Cat 2 library: $3000 annual, 800 downloads, $3.50/download
Cat 1 library: $1500 annual, 400 downloads

I’m currently in Danvers, MA, waiting for the meeting on downloadables to start. I’m gonna try to blog my quick notes live, just so’s, you know, they actually get *posted*, so forgive me if I’m brief or incoherent. I won’t be going into intricate detail, I’ll just be covering highlights from the meeting. I’m also tweeting the meeting on Twitter, which ups the continuous partial attention ante a comfortable smidge.

On tap this morning is the Recorded Books unlimited use model, the “new NetLibrary package” (to be explained), MyLibraryDV (the Recorded Books new downloadable video service), and Overdrive.

I must say, in advance, that I wish that NetLibrary and Overdrive would get together and have a love child, with the best of the genes of both. From a user perspective, the NetLibrary unlimited download model (no limit on the number of patrons who can check out an download eaudiobooks) is way better than the Overdrive one-patron-one-checkout-one-download model, and better mirrors what people see on the web everywhere else.

Anyway, the meeting’s getting started.
The Salem News had a front page story about digital fun at the library. I can’t find it online, but if I find it later, I’ll post a link to it.
NetLibrary: Andy Bush - Manager, US Library Services (OCLC)
In his introduction, Andy notes that throughout our morning of presentations we should keep WorldCat in mind, because the biggest thing you can do to create more success is to make your content more visible. Like it or not, patrons are starting research at Google and Yahoo!, and Open WorldCat is hauling in 10 million captures from Google and Yahoo! a month and bringing them back to the library (according to Andy).

DRM: NetLibrary does not work with iPods because of the Apple iPod proprietary digital rights management package that needs to be licensed, and Apple doesn’t want to play nice with NetLibrary (Andy says that Apple only uses the DRM on iPods and iTunes, but that can’t be right, since Audible supports iPods; I’m guessing he means that it won’t play nice with *library* services).

Apparently, Microsoft decided to follow suit with the Zune, and create proprietary digital rights management that needs to be licensed, as well. Poo. NetLibrary is in conversation with Apple about somehow licensing the DRM, but there’s no timeline or promise that the negotiations will bring anything to fruition. So, I’ll tell you what I tell the patrons when I hafta explain this over and over again: write to Apple and Microsoft, and encourage them to play nice with library services. Please, Apple and Microsoft, cut libraries a break.

Purchase vs. Subscription: I didn’t know that there was a purchase program available through NetLibrary. The subscription model allows unlimited downloads for unlimited patrons. The purchase model is much like the Overdrive model I’ve used at the Boston Public Library, where you buy however many copies you want, and only one person at a time can have each copy checked out, like a book IRL (in real life). Now I’m wondering if Overdrive has a similar set of options for service packages.

Chunking? Right now, all of the NetLibrary files download and play as one ginormous file (Overdrive gives you the book in pieces). It’s really inconvenient, especially for the more beginner users who buy less robust MP3 players without the fancy fancy bookmarking features (I, myself, find it annoying). NetLibrary is considering what is termed “chunking,” breaking up the files into pieces to make it easier to navigate. I can see the hesitation, since Overdrive has a download management and play app that helps you download, play, and transfer those chunks easily. So, this means that NetLibrary either needs to develope a similar application, or find a way to make it easy for Windows Media Player to see the chunks as one file, as a good usability tactic. (I was not impressed that Andy tried to play off the big file thing as something that could be solved by having a better MP3 player.)

No Burning for You!: A question about burning to CD came from the group. It’s not possible, and I end up explaining this a lot to staff and patrons, because people will often try to burn it to CD when they don’t have an MP3 player, or, oddly, when they can’t get the file to work on their computer. The DRM doesn’t allow for the burning.

Not spam, honest. Making a *statement* with $0.99, definitely.

“On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.” Money raised will go to a scholarship fund, “partly because it’s a worthy cause, but also partly because college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media.”

Click on the banner for more info.

Now if there was just some way we could harness the power of the social networking meme to raise money or garner support for the library. It means getting out into the digital communities and participating in what exists as an individual, not just a librarian when you’re on shift doing it for your library. It’s a culture thing, not just an application of an application thing. I wonder, could we figure it out and do it? On the *world’s* terms, not just no librarian/library terms?

This came via email from NOBLE just now:

If you can recommend an experienced (hardware and software) PC person interested in about eight hours per week of work, please have them contact us. Pay rate is $20 per hour for a person with appropriate certification or experience. No benefits at all, must have license and vehicle, mileage reimbursed at IRS rate. Hours flexible within 8:30-5 Monday through Friday.

So if I know you, you’re in the area, and you’re lookin’, I can recommend you.

Also, my library is looking for a page (shelves books, assists librarians, other tasks as assigned). “Must be hard working, detail-oriented, and willing to work alternate Saturdays. Position is year-round. Must be able to stand, stoop, reach, lift/move up to 25 pounds.” $7.96/hour to start, applications are at the Circ desk when you come in, and the deadline April 16.