It’s Here! It’s Here!!
Overdrive has FINALLY released an Overdrive Media Console app for the iPhone. All I can say is: Yippie!! I like the functionality overall and I’m delighted by the fact that this service is wirelessly available to even more customers out there.
It not perfect of course as it only works with MP3 Audiobooks: no WMA, no Music, no Movies, no eBooks. It also has crashed on me a couple times. Still IT’S A START. I imagine WMA functionality will come around and bugs will work out over time.
Some thoughts on what Libraries need to do now:
- We need MOBILE versions of our Overdrive catalogs. Trying to navigate my library’s standard site on my iPhone is…eh…painful. Since the app relies on the the library digital collection sites for browsing, it is imperative that we make it as easy as possible folk mobile browsers. Better yet we need to achieve better integration of our digital collections into our catalogs so we don’t need separate digital catalogs.
- We really need to ramp up our offerings. My library’s selection is significantly better than it used to be back when we started, but we really need to pick things up now, because we can really reach pretty much every mobile device at this point. Now that folks can download material from us just like they can from the iTunes Store THERE NEEDS TO BE STUFF THERE. I think it’s time to start shifting Audiobook money to our digital collections. There’s no need for anything radical, but we need to invest far more than most do now.
- We also need to start getting multiple licences more systematically. While customers I help with this service are remarkably accepting of the need for hold lists, I still feel that instant gratification expectations need to be satisfied as much as possible, especially considering that this newfound accessibility is (hopefully) going to ramp up demand for the service. If we want to win over more converts we need to make it as pleasant an experience as possible. Given that many libraries are part of consortia arrangements for our eContent, this becomes all the more important as it spreads the demand for the titles over larger populations.