Building a Community of Readers: Social Reading and an Aggregated eBook Reading App for Libraries The Gates Through Central Park Benches by Sterling Ely / CC-BY-SA In Brief: Library ebooks are currently read in different, unconnected reading platforms. Because all library ebook vendors use the same Adobe ADEPT system to circulate ebooks, they could be delivered to a single aggregated reading app. This article discusses social reading and why libraries should look at the technology, and details the Adobe ADEPT DRM system, OAuth, and application programming interfaces (APIs) to illustrate how an aggregated reading app could be built. Book Bench: An Aggregated eBook Reading App It’s a Tuesday morning, I am talking with my co-worker, Sally. “It’s a new reading app,” she says. Book Bench isn’t real. Instead, we wind up apologizing: for getting an Adobe ID; for having several separate ebook systems; for the number of steps involved in getting an ebook onto a reading device. We want to suggest a new app. We will discuss social reading and why libraries should look at the technology. 1. 2.
Welcome to Crazytown: Public Libraries Confront Digital Objects | ruk.ca Yesterday I saw this tweet, about a teach-yourself-Norwegian audiobook available from the Public Library Service: As I do want to learn Norwegian, at least in theory, I followed the link, which led me to a page on the Prince Edward Island-branded Overdrive.com website. To “borrow” this audiobook I needed to enter my library card number, put the audiobook in my “cart” (thus starting us, forebodingly, down the road toward ecommerce language), then “checkout” (ibid), select a 7, 14 or 21 day “lending period,” download a XML wrapper file for the audiobook, download the “Overdrive Media Console” software for my Mac, and then open the XML wrapper inside the Media Console to actually download what, in the end, was simply 3 non-DRMed MP3 files. After listening to the first 5 minutes of the first MP3 file, I decided that I didn’t really have any interest at all in learning Norwegian, so I tried to “return” the audiobook, but found no way to do so.
Librarians Lead the Way in EdTech April is School Library Month, and this year’s theme is “Your School Library: Where Learning Never Ends.” No tag line could be truer. Librarians are lifelong learners by nature. Whether it is the newest educational theory, the latest research methods, or the newest educational technology push, librarians love to learn and share new things. When considering a new educational technology initiative, such as purchasing Chromebooks, going BYOD, or choosing educational software, districts often consider many things, including cost, return on investment, effectiveness, and necessary professional development. Libraries and librarians are at the forefront and often the hub of the school. “Research” skills have evolved rapidly in the last 20 years and much of that evolution is because of educational technology. More than 75% of the librarians surveyed estimated that they spend 50% or more of their day working directly with students, teachers, and technology.