This week’s course content centered on e-books: audio and text. I am one of the seemingly few public library patrons who are lamenting the withdrawl of books-on-tape. My old Lumina sports a perfectly functioning tape deck, so all this talk of digital audio books (DABs) has me a little bitter... :)
Grudges aside, Peters (2005) kicks things off this week by giving a nice overview of the major players in DABs in libraries, which I’ve listed below with my notes from each:
OverDrive - Play on PC with free software, transfer to playback device and/or burned, WMA files, simultaneous users, media markers to going between stuff, allows consortial agreements good administrative module
Playaway - Has some different language materials, wide range of content, can purchase by individual title, circulates at most libraries as an actual physical item
NetLibrary - No software needed, can be played on multiple devices, no burning, need to set up an account, have different file types and sound qualities - radio and CD - which allows for users on dial-up and other connections, can preview the book very much like flipping through a few pages
TumbleBooks - Has different language materials, games and books and puzzles, need to be online - no downloads, does not offer a consortial pricing model
Audible.com - More individual subscriptions, issue: not allowing multiple people to "check out" a DAB copy simultaneously, libraries need in-house circ, no way to independently load books onto player because need to go directly to device, frustration of having to relearn new technologies
So to rewind a moment, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped started a digital talking book program in 2008, and it is a sector of the field that is emerging very quickly. Initiatives to develop DAB systems that enhance accessibility for all patrons continue to grow, including the Braille and Audio Reading Download website. Accessibility issues are very real but not often recognized as important and driving factors for this segment of library user populations. Today, you can see that there are a lot of different devices available, and the readings and videos for this week brought to my mind some of the issues associated even with things like DABs. DABs have great potential to bridge accessibility gaps for certain segments of library user populations, especially those with vision impairment or physical handicaps. However, there are still accessibility issues becoming apparent as more DAB technologies find their way into libraries, such as web access to content (Audible) and the physical operation of a device (Playaway), for example.
I began to think about the importance of keeping in mind that when things like mp3 devices were created, they were born out of convenience, something to play music on wherever you were (and I even owned an early model that doubled as a flashdrive for my Microsoft Office files, too). I don’t believe they were created necessarily as the primary media by which people with disability and accessibility concerns would receive information. As it is realized more and more by the industry just how fitting these devices would be to fill a gap in library accessibility, devices will continue and have continued to mature, as do the software that accompany them. It is difficult to tell at this time what a future device would look like, one that would “have it all.” My immediate thought was to just take the best of each one and create a single device that would, in fact, have it all. But then I start to question if, for example, there any areas where adding a feature to one device would take away from the best advantages of the original device? For example, would adding something to a DAB gizmo or program end up compromising its accessibility in another way?
As a librarian, I imagine it is difficult to work around and with the different players, appreciating the diversity each offers but uncertain about how to best integrate them into your library holdings, let alone a single cohesive DAB collection. Peters et al (2007) notes this: “...if an individual library subscribes to NetLibrary audiobooks and gains access to OverDrive audiobooks through some consortia or statewide initiative, that library may want to pull all this digital audiobook content together into a seamlessly whole collection and service that it presents to its users.” Also, as one of the videos we viewed for this week noted for e-books, there are challenges presented in purchase versus lease plans for DABs. “Under the purchase model, libraries purchase and own each copy of each title. On the other hand, a leasing model offers multiple concurrent users access to a title” (Peters et al, 2007). And we find ourselves again back at one of the pillar concerns facing libraries today: ownership versus access.
With regard to pricing, Peters et al (2005) write that authors think unlimited simultaneous user pricing model is best and that it should be industry standard along with variable speed playback, enlarged content scope, and more focus on usability than style. I found this a little ironic considering two years later, Peters et al (2007) picked apart every stylistic detail of DABs content including narrator’s voice and background effects. This part of the DAB overview for libraries sort of bothered me because it seems like an awfully nitpicking thing to concern oneself with when – in comparison – people who read physical books don’t have a say on industry standards regarding typeface, color of pages, size of print or pages, etc. Perhaps these stylistic details truly are a serious issue to users, but I think we need to consider the accessibility problems still in the pipeline to be dealt with before what seem like other surface level details. I will note that I found it interesting that Peters et al (2007) split up the collection content of DABs into frontlist, backlist, and public-domain titles, because that was what my big drawback of thinking the world of DABs is, that I can only ever access really old books on Playaways. However, given how fast the market is changing, that’s probably different by now.
Seeing the License and Agreement Terms highlighted in the Peters et al (2007) article put into perspective how as librarians we are faced with an ever-evolving licensing environment. Technology really does continue to change everything and whether we want to or not, it will affect us. I liked the variety of reports that are available through OverDrive with regard to DAB circulation, where you can see activity charts as well as current waiting list reports and waiting list history reports.
And to give a quick shout-out to e-books, I didn’t realize that they were not as highly favored in academic library settings. They have received such positive attention in the public library sector and general population, but I also have not considered e-books as a part of a university library collection prior to this week. I don’t know, however, if the Think Tank’s suggestion to catalog the e-books that a library acquires would necessarily solve the problems they highlighted. This is especially considering that the source of many of the errors were typically not on the library processing side but rather on a more fundamental level with the e-book publishers.
Grudges aside, Peters (2005) kicks things off this week by giving a nice overview of the major players in DABs in libraries, which I’ve listed below with my notes from each:
OverDrive - Play on PC with free software, transfer to playback device and/or burned, WMA files, simultaneous users, media markers to going between stuff, allows consortial agreements good administrative module
Playaway - Has some different language materials, wide range of content, can purchase by individual title, circulates at most libraries as an actual physical item
NetLibrary - No software needed, can be played on multiple devices, no burning, need to set up an account, have different file types and sound qualities - radio and CD - which allows for users on dial-up and other connections, can preview the book very much like flipping through a few pages
TumbleBooks - Has different language materials, games and books and puzzles, need to be online - no downloads, does not offer a consortial pricing model
Audible.com - More individual subscriptions, issue: not allowing multiple people to "check out" a DAB copy simultaneously, libraries need in-house circ, no way to independently load books onto player because need to go directly to device, frustration of having to relearn new technologies
So to rewind a moment, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped started a digital talking book program in 2008, and it is a sector of the field that is emerging very quickly. Initiatives to develop DAB systems that enhance accessibility for all patrons continue to grow, including the Braille and Audio Reading Download website. Accessibility issues are very real but not often recognized as important and driving factors for this segment of library user populations. Today, you can see that there are a lot of different devices available, and the readings and videos for this week brought to my mind some of the issues associated even with things like DABs. DABs have great potential to bridge accessibility gaps for certain segments of library user populations, especially those with vision impairment or physical handicaps. However, there are still accessibility issues becoming apparent as more DAB technologies find their way into libraries, such as web access to content (Audible) and the physical operation of a device (Playaway), for example.
I began to think about the importance of keeping in mind that when things like mp3 devices were created, they were born out of convenience, something to play music on wherever you were (and I even owned an early model that doubled as a flashdrive for my Microsoft Office files, too). I don’t believe they were created necessarily as the primary media by which people with disability and accessibility concerns would receive information. As it is realized more and more by the industry just how fitting these devices would be to fill a gap in library accessibility, devices will continue and have continued to mature, as do the software that accompany them. It is difficult to tell at this time what a future device would look like, one that would “have it all.” My immediate thought was to just take the best of each one and create a single device that would, in fact, have it all. But then I start to question if, for example, there any areas where adding a feature to one device would take away from the best advantages of the original device? For example, would adding something to a DAB gizmo or program end up compromising its accessibility in another way?
As a librarian, I imagine it is difficult to work around and with the different players, appreciating the diversity each offers but uncertain about how to best integrate them into your library holdings, let alone a single cohesive DAB collection. Peters et al (2007) notes this: “...if an individual library subscribes to NetLibrary audiobooks and gains access to OverDrive audiobooks through some consortia or statewide initiative, that library may want to pull all this digital audiobook content together into a seamlessly whole collection and service that it presents to its users.” Also, as one of the videos we viewed for this week noted for e-books, there are challenges presented in purchase versus lease plans for DABs. “Under the purchase model, libraries purchase and own each copy of each title. On the other hand, a leasing model offers multiple concurrent users access to a title” (Peters et al, 2007). And we find ourselves again back at one of the pillar concerns facing libraries today: ownership versus access.
With regard to pricing, Peters et al (2005) write that authors think unlimited simultaneous user pricing model is best and that it should be industry standard along with variable speed playback, enlarged content scope, and more focus on usability than style. I found this a little ironic considering two years later, Peters et al (2007) picked apart every stylistic detail of DABs content including narrator’s voice and background effects. This part of the DAB overview for libraries sort of bothered me because it seems like an awfully nitpicking thing to concern oneself with when – in comparison – people who read physical books don’t have a say on industry standards regarding typeface, color of pages, size of print or pages, etc. Perhaps these stylistic details truly are a serious issue to users, but I think we need to consider the accessibility problems still in the pipeline to be dealt with before what seem like other surface level details. I will note that I found it interesting that Peters et al (2007) split up the collection content of DABs into frontlist, backlist, and public-domain titles, because that was what my big drawback of thinking the world of DABs is, that I can only ever access really old books on Playaways. However, given how fast the market is changing, that’s probably different by now.
Seeing the License and Agreement Terms highlighted in the Peters et al (2007) article put into perspective how as librarians we are faced with an ever-evolving licensing environment. Technology really does continue to change everything and whether we want to or not, it will affect us. I liked the variety of reports that are available through OverDrive with regard to DAB circulation, where you can see activity charts as well as current waiting list reports and waiting list history reports.
And to give a quick shout-out to e-books, I didn’t realize that they were not as highly favored in academic library settings. They have received such positive attention in the public library sector and general population, but I also have not considered e-books as a part of a university library collection prior to this week. I don’t know, however, if the Think Tank’s suggestion to catalog the e-books that a library acquires would necessarily solve the problems they highlighted. This is especially considering that the source of many of the errors were typically not on the library processing side but rather on a more fundamental level with the e-book publishers.
Image credit: Wikimedia by Free Software Foundation
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