Libraries in the modern world

I was pleased to see that the Sacramento Public Library (SPL) is not letting grass grown under its feet, so to speak. They have just opened their digital library complete with 671 audio and digital books available for checkout and download. Like the early personal computers with the DOS operating system, this system is somewhat overwhelming at first. But I suspect it will get easier.

The easy (and familiar) part is searching the catalog which the SPL has made easier and enjoyable by separating the various genres and including the cover art for each book as well as a brief summary. For example The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had the following listing:

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: The Quandary Phase
Edition: Unabridged
Series: Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Simon Jones
Geoffrey McGivern
Stephen Moore
William Franklyn
©BBC Audiobooks LTD 2005

Publisher: BBC Audiobooks LTD
Pub Date: 05/23/2005
Subject(s): Science Fiction

Excerpt(s): Episode One: Fit the Nineteenth: A Plant in the Way (WMA format)

Format Information
OverDrive Audio Book eRequest
Available copies: 0 (0 patron(s) on waiting list)
Library copies: 2
Lending period: 21 days
File size: 34444 KB
Number of parts: 2
Duration: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Reader version: OverDrive Media Console 1.0 or later
ISBN: 1405699531

Description
Don’t panic! The Hitchhiker’s saga returns once again with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in Douglas Adams’s famous ‘trilogy in five parts’. The Earth has miraculously reappeared and, even more miraculously, Arthur Dent has found it. Returning to his cottage after... well... ages, he falls in love with the girl of his dreams.

But Ford Prefect is on to something which might well burst Arthur’s bubble. There is, after all, something very fishy about his girlfriend’s feet, and what has happened to all the dolphins? Perhaps, at last, all will be revealed in God’s Last Message to His Creation…

Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford and Stephen Moore as Marvin. William Franklyn is the Book, and there is a whole host of famous guest stars.

This extended edition features 30 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

Digital Rights Information
OverDrive Audio Book
This title can be played during the lending period
Collaborative play of this title is not allowed
This title can be burned to CD during the lending period
This title can be transferred to a portable device during the lending period

The more difficult part of the operation is downloading the free file management and playback software which is intended to deal with the "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) aspect of the digital books. But even that can be done by following the detailed instructions carefully. Future downloads should be a piece of cake.

Digital Management Rights means that there is as tight a control of the digital books as if they were actual paper/tape/disks. If the library has two "copies" of a book, only two patrons can download the book. A patron cannot forward or copy the digital book. When the download "expires" after 3 weeks that copy is freed up for the next patron. It becomes unusable to the first patron because of the DRM software. He doesn't even have to return the book to the library. In fact, one aspect of the digital library that I find troublesome is the fixed checkout time. When you check out a book, you get it for 3 weeks - no more, no less. If you finish reading it early or decide you really didn't want it, there is no way to "return" the book prematurely.

Currently, the Sacramento Public Library has 537 book titles in audio format (that play using Windows Media Player overseen by OverDrive Media Console) and 225 book titles in digital format (readable by Adobe and MobiPocket software). If a publisher allows, the audio version of a book can be further downloaded into a mobile device such as an MP3 player, iPod or a CD. Since I don't have an iPod, I burned a rewriteable CD which I am playing in my car stereo.