Librarians Hope for a 'Seamless Experience' With Amazon's Kindle
By Michael Kelley Apr 22, 2011OverDrive's director of marketing, David Burleigh, said earlier this week that the upcoming integration of Amazon's Kindle with OverDrive's library ebook lending platform would be a "seamless experience" for libraries and their patrons.
As librarians around the country await the finer, technical details about how the Kindle Library Lending program will work in practice, a number of librarians contacted by LJ said, amid a generalized excitement, that they will be focused on that "seamless experience" and some other points as well.
No longer having to say 'no' to patrons
"I'm pretty excited because I think one of the key questions we've gotten is 'Why can't I use my Kindle with your library stuff,' " said Robin Nesbitt, the technical services director at Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio, which has had an aggressive ebook reader education campaign for its patrons. "It just broadens access, and it also brings libraries more into the ebook conversation because of Amazon's prominence. People will be thinking about libraries more," she said.
Nesbitt said that her library was expecting more traffic as a result of Kindle lending, but no notice would be posted until a firmer date is announced. Amazon and OverDrive have only said that the integration of Kindle will occur sometime this year.
The announcement was equally exciting to Rachel Martin, the assistant managing librarian for collection services at the Seattle Public Library.
"The whole announcement is so fabulous. I'm so excited about it for all the potential library users [who]...call us about their Kindle and being able to tell them 'yes' is so great," she told LJ. "I just hope the experience is seamless and smooth."
As for desired features, Martin had a few on her list.
"I definitely hope there would be a wireless download component to it," she said. "And Kindle users are used to making their selection on their Kindle, and I hope that they will still be able to do that with library ebooks, as opposed to using a PC to select and check out," she said.
OverDrive has not released many details about the download process, except to say that the program "will integrate into your existing OverDrive-powered 'Virtual Branch' website" with Kindle as a delivery destination.
Some want to see Amazon push even further into the library field.
"I'd like to see Amazon take this to a new level by endorsing the loaning of Kindle devices by libraries," Sue Polanka, head of reference & instruction at Wright State University's Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, told LJ. Polanka also blogs at No Shelf Required.
Giving OverDrive credit
Amy Pawlowski, the web applications manager at the Cleveland Public Library, had ease of use on her mind.
"I would really hope...[that] my patrons...see this as just another compatible device, and it looks like that is what is going to happen," she told LJ. "I know OverDrive is working on making the process with its media console and Adobe Digital Editions easier, and with Amazon coming on board I'm hopeful they will be making an end product that is easier for the patron," she said.
Pawlowski, formerly a manager of partner services for OverDrive, also said the company deserved more credit for its efforts.
"I'm pretty sure Amazon didn't come to OverDrive; I'm pretty sure that OverDrive, as an advocate for ebook lending in the library space, has been approaching Amazon...for a while," she said. "I'm upset that I'm seeing them get beat up by so many bloggers. No product is perfect and no product is going to make every librarian happy, but there are always starting points and you need that to arrive at a good product, and this is an amazing starting point," she said.
OverDrive representatives could not be reached for comment.
Licensing options still a big problem
Other librarians, such as Eli Neiburger, the associate director for IT and production at the Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan and a 2011 LJ Mover & Shaker, raised some cautionary, broader points.
"It's great news for Kindle owners that Kindle accounts will become a delivery point for OverDrive checkouts, and it's nice to know that compatibility with OverDrive has emerged as a selling point for ereaders," Neiburger told LJ. "But libraries still need more licensing options, especially the choice of an unlimited-checkout, limited-term license for hot items..... Libraries need to continue to push for modern, sustainable licensing models by negotiating directly with rights holders and investing in the infrastructure necessary to deliver digital content; that gives libraries the power to sidestep these churning platform, device, and rights management issues and focus on great service," he said.
In its announcement, OverDrive said that the Kindle program will support publishers' existing lending models, which would include the 26-checkout limit recently imposed by HarperCollins. The emergence of the Kindle in libraries and the strain it may place as a result of present licensing models also concerned Kristi Chadwick, the technical services librarian for the Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource sharing consortium.
"This also means that the 'one-patron/one-copy' model will still be in effect, with that many more patrons with Kindles vying for the copies available and racking the holds ratios back up to the record highs we saw in January," wrote Chadwick. "We are going to have to buy more copies; with library budgets as strained as they are, I foresee longer wait times and more choices to be made about how to reallocate budgets by format," she wrote.
EPUB is not dead
There remains a world beyond Amazon still to take into account.
"We welcome Amazon's continued efforts to increase consumer acceptance of ebooks, including their recently announced support for library lending," Bill McCoy, the executive director for the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), told LJ. IDPF is the global trade and standards organization for digital publishing.
McCoy said speculation that the EPUB standard was "dead" was premature at best.
"It is unreasonable to expect that the file format for and access control over digital books and other publications will be unilaterally controlled even in one country---much less on a global basis---by a single for-profit company."
McCoy said that IDPF will continue to work to ensure that the EPUB open standard will create a level playing field, which would enable "competition among multiple distribution channels to ensure that consumers have the maximum choice to read where and how they want, and publishers and authors are fairly compensated."
He said most sales at the Kindle store were sent to Amazon by publishers as EPUB files; Amazon converts the files into the proprietary format it delivers to consumers, which is the format that OverDrive will use to deliver ebooks in a library's collection to a Kindle.
