OverDrive Unveils Project Gutenberg Ebook Downloads
By David RappAug 11, 2010
OverDrive announced yesterday that its partner, the Boston Public Library (BPL), has added some 15,000 public-domain, DRM-free ebooks from Project Gutenberg (PG) to its OverDrive-powered "Virtual Branch," and is making them available to the public at large.
The new public beta site allows any user to download PG ebooks, but such users are not required to sign in as BPL patrons, and downloads do not count against patron checkout limits or have time limits for use. Indeed, the ebooks aren't really loaned at all—users effectively own the ebooks they download.
The ebooks are not included in the regular library catalog, but on a separate Overdrive-powered site. Selections include popular pre-1923 classics, such as the works of Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as such obscure fare as 1906's Are You a Bromide? by Gelett Burgess.
Downloads as circulation
How does the service differ from that offered on Project Gutenberg's own site? For the end-user, not much, although OverDrive does provide a certain amount of quality control, weeding out duplicates and low-quality ebooks.
There is a difference for the library, however, in that OverDrive counts each download as a circulation, even though the ebooks are neither loaned nor returned. "There is a transaction occurring, and the library is the source of that transaction," David Burleigh, director of marketing at OverDrive, told LJ. (Other OverDrive downloads that typically expire are also counted as circs.)
It's a model that brings to mind Freegal, a service from Vienna, VA-based Library Ideas, in which library patrons may download and keep DRM-free digital music. Freegal also offers a reporting module that tracks downloads as circulations, according to Library Ideas head Brian Downing. (The Freegal model has been a source of controversy among some librarians, as LJ has reported.)
Future rollout
No firm date yet as to when the new service will be rolled out to other libraries, but according to a post on OverDrive's Digital Library Blog, it will be available in the United States, the United Kingdom, and potentially other international territories.
Internet Archive plans
Burleigh also said that OverDrive is in the initial stages of preparing a similar service for ebooks from the Internet Archive (IA). Like Project Gutenberg, IA has a vast collection of public-domain, DRM-free ebooks available for download. OverDrive also already has a relationship with IA, which recently began including links to ebooks on OverDrive-powered library sites as part of its Open Library project.
OverDrive's Project Gutenberg service uses the open-standard and DRM-free EPUB ebook format, but not the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) ebook catalog specification, which the Open Library uses. OPDS is a key part of the IA's ongoing BookServer project, which aims to create an open distribution architecture for digital content.
