Changes to come with Overdrive

Do you download ebooks? Has this ever happened to you?

You are searching in the local OPAC for say "61 Hours" by Lee Child. You choose the ebook version, click the link, and find myself at "61 Hours" in the OverDrive catalog.

But, you can't add it to your cart until you log in. And after you log in, you are dumped back to the default landing page, not back at "61 Hours"?

So, then you have to search for it within the OverDrive site to get myself back there.

Annoying Right?

Well by annoyed no more! Tweaking this feature has actually been added to the new Overdrive Feature Request list and is under review. Hopefully this functionality will be updated in the future for their sites as they definitely do not want the user experience to be ‘annoying’!

So look forward to better things to come in the future from Overdrive!

Recorded Books/One-Click Discontinued

HCPLC has decided to discontinue our Recorded Books / One-Click service. Due to budgetary reasons and the high price per unit of the Recorded Books platform we have decided to not renew our annual subscription and instead concentrate on the alternate platform of TBLC’s (Overdrive) Digital Book Catalog product which also offers downloadable books as well as music and videos.

In the next few months we will be adding heavily to the Overdrive platform with downloadables in many formats including, EPUB, WMA and MP3. Customers are able to access Overdrive either directly or through our Databases and Websites page located off our main webpage at:

http://www.hcplc.org/

If you have not done so already, check Overdrive for all the exciting titles in various formats. Easy to use and fun to browse, so Check It Out!

Free sites for downloadable Audiobooks

With all the new devices and distributors of audiobooks it can be a somewhat overwhelming about where to turn. But in addition to the known sites like NetLibrary and Overdrive there are also some good "free" sites out there that have lots of classic titles for download as well. Listed below are a few of these site for you to check out.

LibriVox

ManyBooks.net

Project Gutenberg

International Children's Digital Library

New titles added to Overdrive

93 new titles have been added to the Overdrive database in July. Many of them are "classics" which students may have on their summer reading lists. Remember to direct your customers to Overdrive when you are unable to find these titles in a paper copy. Below are listed just some of the titles which have been added and fall in the classics category:

Sense and sensibility /Austen, Jane, 1775-1817.
Wuthering Heights /Bronte, Emily, 1818-1848.
A time of innocence /Burke, Warren, 1932-
Nicholas Nickleby /Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Oliver Twist /Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Hound of the Baskervilles /Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930.
Call of wild /London, Jack, 1876-1916.
Winnie-the-Pooh /Milne, A. A. (Alan Alexander), 1882-1956.
Anne of Green Gables /Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874-1942.
Heidi chronicles /Wasserstein, Wendy.

NEW MP3 Audiobooks have Arrived!

If you have not checked out Overdrive in a while, now is the time! We have just added NEW titles to our OverDrive collection that are compatible with your MP3 players. You can transfer these titles to an iPod®, an iPhone™, an iPod Touch as well as a CD or MP3 player.

Below is a list of the new titles that were added at the beginning of March 09.

Happy listening!


Bloodlist (unabridged)
Effective Writing for Business, College, and Life (unabridged)
The Bonesetter's Daughter (unabridged)
The Attractor Factor (unabridged)
Deadly Housewives (unabridged)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald (unabridged)
Maximizing Your Money (unabridged)
100 Ways To Bring Out Your Best (unabridged)
Wine Appreciation (unabridged)
Dreams (unabridged)
A More Perfect Union (unabridged)
Nailing the Job Interview (unabridged)
Blackman’s Coffin (unabridged)
The Metamorphosis (unabridged)
Death Is a Cabaret (unabridged)
The House at Pooh Corner (unabridged)
Retiring Right (unabridged)
Shades of Blue (unabridged)
I Am Potential (unabridged)
The Now Habit (unabridged)
Name Withheld (unabridged)
Winnie-the-Pooh (unabridged)
Healthy Eating (unabridged)
Edge of Evil (unabridged)

New Brilliance titles added to OverDrive Digital Catalog

Check out these new titles added to OverDrive since the beginning of January 2009!

The 13th Juror
16 Lighthouse Road
204 Rosewood Lane
311 Pelican Court
44 Cranberry Point
50 Harbor Street
8 Sandpiper Way
An Abundance of Katherines
Amazing Grace
Autumn Lover
Betrayal
Blood Brothers
Blood Tide
Bloodline
Born in Ice
Born in Shame
Cave of the Dark Wind
Celebration
China Lake
Crosscut
Dale Brown’s Retribution
Darkfall
Desert Rain
The Devil Who Tamed Her
The Dirty Secrets Club
Dragon Harper
Dragon’s Fire
Dragonsblood
Dragonsdawn
Escape from the Carnivale
Fast Track
The Fifth Profession
Forbidden
Forget Me Not
Gentle Rogue
Hard Evidence
The Hearing
The Hollow
Honor Thyself
The House of Thunder
Jericho Point
L.A. Outlaws
Laguna Heat
The League of Night and Fog
Light in Shadow
Listen to Your Heart
Looking for Alaska
Lost and Found
Love Me Forever
Love Only Once
Lover in the Rough
The Magic of You
The Marriage Game
Marriage Most Scandalous
Mask Market
Midnight in Death
Mission Canyon
Morrigan’s Cross
Murder at Ford’s Theatre
Murder at the Opera
Murder at The Washington Tribune
Murder at Union Station
Murder in Foggy Bottom
Murder on K Street
Nimisha’s Ship
No Choice But Seduction
The Oath
Odd Hours
Pandora’s Daughter
Pegasus in Space
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon
Phantoms
Plain Jane
The President’s House
The Pursuit
Remember Summer
The Renegades of Pern
Say You Love Me
Sealed with a Kiss
The Second Chair
Shadow Command
Smoke in Mirrors
Soft Focus
Tender Rebel
Terminal
To the Ends of the Earth
Truth or Dare
Twenty Wishes
Twilight Eyes
Untamed
Up Close and Personal
Vegas Heat
Vegas Rich
Vegas Sunrise
The Vig
The Voice of the Night
What You Wish For
Where Angels Go
A Woman Without Lies
Yesterday

Overdrive Updates

We are happy to be able to announce two major additions of support in the Overdrive Audiobooks that we are offering.

The first is support for the MP3 format in a limited number of titles. At this point 76 titles to be exact! This means that in addition to devices from Microsoft running either PlaysForSure or Zune software, there is now support for Apple, Palm, and Android-based and any other devices that support the widely used MP3 format. You can now transfer these titles to an iPod®, an iPhone™, an iPod Touch as well as a CD or MP3 player. Eventually each title in our catalog will have a graph to indicate it is Ipod compatible.

In addition, the Overdrive Media Console is a now available in versions for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh.

To get started link to the ebooks & Audiobooks subject Guide off the Databases and Websites page and go to the TBLC Digital Catalog.

New Digital Music Class @ John F. Germany Public Library

Explore digital music available from the library and on the web in a new Digital Music class at the John F. Germany Public Library. The class will be held on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm. Adults and teens are welcome.

Though not required, attendees are encouraged to bring portable MP3 players and/or USB drives to this highly interactive class.

This class would be a great help to anyone interested in using the downloadable music collection in the TBLC Digital Media Catalog.

Please mention this class to anyone who might be interested. (This class is not listed in Page by Page.) Thanks!

OverDrive Downloadable Videos

Exciting News!

We have just received our first batch of downloadable videos from OverDrive. At the moment, the majority of our titles are current PBS titles, but OverDrive also offers feature length films, short form programs and TV series all delivered in the Windows Media Video (WMV) format.

Every OverDrive video checkout gives you the option to use a 'standard' and/or 'mobile' version of the video. Once downloaded to your computer, standard videos can be played in an OverDrive Media Console and scaled to full-screen.

Mobile video files are optimized for use on compatible mobile devices, and can be transferred to such devices in just a few clicks using OverDrive Media Console for enjoyment on-the-go.

As library customers, adding videos to your OverDrive service is simple. Just refresh with the new format--it's on the same platform as your audiobooks and music!

To retrieve the records in our catalog simply do a subject search for "downloadable video collection". This search will bring up all 266 titles with more to be added in the future.

Hope you all enjoy this new feature of our OverDrive product!

OverDrive Announcement

Great News!!!

OverDrive will distribute titles in MP3 format without DRM. OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks will be compatible with nearly every MP3 player and mobile phone on the market including iPod, Zune, iPhone, and Creative Labs products. All of the titles in OverDrive’s catalog will not be in this format, but at least some will be, which is an improvement.


http://www.overdrive.com/aboutus/getArticle.aspx?newsArticleID=20080319

New Titles added to Overdrive

If you are no familiar with the product Overdrive, you might want to take a look. Overdrive is a Digital Media Catalog where you can browse audio books and music and check out and download 24/7 to your PC at home, in the office, or from anywhere in the world! You can also transfer titles to your MP3 player, or burn many onto CD for listening on-the-go. About every 2 months new titles are added to our selection and below is a list of the latest titles added in March. Happy listening!

New Titles:

Amelia Earhart
American Gangster and Other Tales of New York
At the Center of the Storm
Beautiful Boy
Blasphemy
Blood Dreams
Boom!
The Color of Water
Creation in Death
The Darkest Evening of the Year
Dispatches from the Edge
Divorced From the Mob
Elijah of Buxton
Eternity in Death
Fear the Night
Final Seconds
Garlic and Sapphires
Gone
Here’s Johnny!
In Defense of Food
The Killing Hour
Lean Mean Thirteen
Learn In Your Car Italian Complete
Learn In Your Car Spanish Complete
Letters to a Young Artist
The Lost Painting
Magic Tree House Collection Books 1-8
Magic Tree House Collection Books 9-16
Malice Prepense
The Mephisto Club
Monsters of Templeton
My Life in France
The Namesake
The Next Accident
The Night Caller
The Night Spider
Olive's Ocean
The Painted Drum
Plum Lovin'
Plum Lucky
Protect and Defend
Proust Was a Neuroscientist
Savages
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry
Sizzle and Burn
Speechercise Level 1
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Volume I
Stardust
Strangers in Death
Travel Talk Chinese (Mandarin)
Twinkie, Deconstructed
Wine Appreciation
World without End
Wrongful Death