OverDrive: You can't polish a turd

My branch circ manager asked for my help when she was redoing her circ manual.  She couldn't get a screenshot of the OverDrive online support form on a single page.  I took it upon myself to improve upon the image.  I knew she noticed it when I heard a laugh come from her cubicle; this image is now in the official circ desk manual.

People are trying to build up the excitement over the "new and improved" Overdrive interface which is supposed to arrive at our library soon.  There really isn't much you can say or tell me about it to change my opinion about Overdrive (a complete suck-fest).

My supervisor is mostly worried about the Cloud aspect of it.  I personally think the Cloud has its advantages but also its fair share of disadvantages, like not having your stuff with you at all times.  Overdrive tries to make it seem like it's the greatest thing ever and that it will work perfectly and seamlessly when you're not connected to the internet.  Psshhh... I'll believe it when I see it.  I can't wait to explain to patrons that they cleared their browser cache which is why they can't access their e-books ("What's my cash have to do with my computer?") .

OverDrive is a textbook example of how crappy things can get when there's a monopoly.  Doll it up all you want, try to make it look pretty with more pictures and flashy UI, but underneath all of it, it is still the same old crappy OD we've come to expect.

My Love/Hate Experience with Overdrive and Kindle...

Two weeks ago I had a patron call asking for help getting his library ebook to his Kindle.  I could tell over the phone that he was not tech-savvy at all, so I took my time explaining what to click and all.  After 15 minutes of unsuccessfully getting the ebook to his Kindle, I told him to try Overdrive support or Amazon Kindle online help.  He called back later and talked to a coworker who also tried to help him.  It didn't work, so he gave the patron the number for the closest library that has volunteer one-on-one sessions for e-readers.

Well, our patron here was very determined to get his ebook that same day, he came in the branch and lucky me was on the info desk again.  So I called someone to watch the desk for me as I walked him over to public PC to attempt to download.  I went through the steps with him, but for some reason when we tried to download it from the Amazon site it said it already was, but when I looked at the Manage my Kindle section, the book wasn't listed.... Apparently when you try to get Kindle books through Overdrive, there is the slight chance your ebook might get lost in the ether.  The only way to resolve this is by contacting Amazon support directly, so OverDrive got let off the hook--- this time.

A lady brought in her iPad and wanted to download some ebooks.  She already had the OverDrive app installed, so I showed her the process of finding the library, searching through the collection and we were able to set up an Adobe account for her and download an ebook in 10 minutes flat and the patron left with a smile.  A couple hours later, a dad came up with his 8 year old boy and the young boy's iPad, they wanted me to show them the same thing.  Sure thing, easy-peasy right?  Well, for some reason the OverDrive app would not let us select the library.  If you can't select a library, well, you can't access any of the ebooks.

Last Friday, I had a patron call who was trying to download BossyPants the audio book to her iPod.  I am not an Apple person at all, I have never owned any of their products, but that hasn't stopped me from helping patrons with their Apple devices.  She wasn't able to download the file to her Mac even though the OverDrive site says that it works for iPod.  Oh yeah, one small minor detail they don't tell you upfront, you want that audio book for your iPod huh?  The only available format is WMA, but wait, OverDrive shows that it will work for the iPod!  Oh wait, if you hover the mouse over the iPod image, it says that you can only get it to work if you use a PC.  So you can download and listen to WMA files, a PC format, on your Apple iPod, but only if you transfer it using a PC... Thanks a lot OverDrive.

Today, as I was trying to make my escape to the backroom an elderly patron came up with her Kindle Fire asking me to show her how to download ebooks.  Okay, honestly, she didn't want me to show her anything, she just wanted me to do it for her.  Hey, that's cool, she wasn't rude, she was very polite, so I browsed the catalog with her until we found an available ebook that looked interesting to her.  So I began the checkout/download progress and when I asked her to enter in her Amazon account and password, she was worried she would break the keyboard with her bad luck.  So she gave me her email account and password, I worry about these type of patrons, she's on the same level as those who get excited when those internet pop-ups tell them "They're today's lucky winner!"  And they nonchalantly enter in all their personal information for nothing.  Anyways, so after I download her Jo Nesbo book, she tells me that her 7 year old grand-daughter is visiting her soon and that she would like to download some games as well.  So I show her how to find the free game section and we ended up trying out, "Where's my Water?" (don't hate, I enjoyed the game).  She seemed to follow and remember the steps I showed her and I had her repeat it in front of me, her grand-daughter will be one happy tablet camper.

The public library ebook download experience SHOULD be as easy as the last example, if not easier.  You choose the item you want and "check out," and then you sync your device over Wi-Fi and poof --- there's your item on your device.  These numbskull publishers need to realize that pirates are not using the public library as a base for their "industry ruining" operations.  Oh, and don't get it twisted, I have still don't have any love for OverDrive, I still hate their monopolistic-[un-innovative]-greedy-lazy-antilibrary-broken-search-function-ass.

The Digital Quicksand, the new Digital Divide...

From the Bibliotecher Dictionary:

Digital Quicksand: the false belief that just because an item (book, journal, article, audio) is available in electronic format, then it must be available instantaneously and free of cost to the user.

If it wasn't bad enough people are trying to close the Digital Divide, there is now a new technology-borne problem on the horizon.  Yeah, it isn't that serious but it still exists.  Unfortunately, in this world of "need it now," people have the tendency to get upset when they cannot get what they what right then and there.

Countless patrons came strolling in after Christmas with their newly unwrapped e-readers wanting to download all those books they wanted to read but never had the time, to only walk away dejected and sometimes pretty upset.  "What do you mean there's a wait list for an ebook??"

Yes, there are holds lists for ebooks.  And yes, the library did not do a good job about letting the public know about how e-book borrowing works.  Well, that might be because libraries, themselves, did not know and still do not since they pathetically take whatever Evil Overdrive gives them, which is just a puppet of publishers.

I try to explain that the library has no real control or say in the matter, well, they do have a say, they could say, "Eff this," and not deal with e-books at all.  But librarians are way to passive-aggressive to do anything about it, so they'd just probably vent about it on their blogs.

Overthrow Overdrive.

For some reason I have always hated Overdrive.  Probably due to its general clunkiness, awful layout and search algorithm.  Seriously, a blindfolded monkey could throw a dart with more accuracy than a search for anything on Overdrive.  Well, now we know why they have never bothered to update the searching or the downloading process: Ebook Publishers want Library borrowing to be difficult.

One thing libraries and librarians just don't seem to understand or refuse to grasp is the idea that Overdrive is  a FOR PROFIT company.  They will do whatever helps their bottom line, not what helps librarians or patrons.  It is as simple as that.  So enough with the whining, "Why doesn't Overdrive look out for my poor little library? /  Why don't they have our back?"  They never did and never will.  What makes the whole situation worse is that they have a freaking strangle hold on the e-book distribution.  When has a monopoly ever been a good thing?

During my MLIS journey, one was bound to hear, "consortium this, consortium that."  So it is quite obvious that libraries already know how beneficial it is to "run in packs."  How come libraries aren't using their numbers to stop getting screwed over with this ebook business?  Let's cut out the middle-man because let's face it, publishers only care about money as well which is why we're in this mess.  On a related note, you would think the publishing industry would learn a lesson or two from their music and movie industry counterparts when it comes to piracy.  How can ebooks be more expensive or equivalent to producing physical books?  With this ridiculous pricing, you can expect more to seek out "cheaper methods."  One would hope that the one organization that ties all libraries together would do something about it, but apparently the only thing ALA can do is talk publishers away.  Yeah, 3M wants to join the ebook distribution party but do you really think that they will be any better than Overdrive? 

Why doesn't ALA form a committee (yes, another) for ebooks and publisher relations, no wait, hear me out, this committee will actually do something.  ALA has connections to universities.  Universities have the knowledge and resources to create a platform for e-material distribution.  ALA also has connections to publishers.  Do you see how this can play out?  The way I see it, if the MIT Media Lab created a basketball hoop that measures force for the recent NBA Slam Dunk Contest, how hard could it be to find a program that could knock out some 1's and 0's to make this happen?  It is a lot better than bending over and over for Overdrive and pirate-paranoid publishers.

Facebook is the Devil.

I would be the first to admit that I'm no marketing-guru, but when I saw that the library marketing department sent these out to all the branches I had a "WTH" look on my face.  I feel their efforts and resources would have been better spent on creating handouts for e-readers.  This happened after my supervisor tells me that my home-brewed, in-branch Kindle handouts are verboten because they did not go through the proper channels of upper management to get their golden seal of approval.  The library marketing department will FINALLY work on updating the e-book/e-reader handouts but only after the "handout committee" (yes, there's now a committee for that!) decides what they should say.

Thankfully, I've saved the handout on my computer and can print them whenever I feel like it.  Who knows how long it will take the committee to actually do something.  I'll just keep a couple under my sweater and whisper to patrons, "Pssst, hey, I heard you got a new Kindle.  I've got something for you."

Hate to sound like a hipster (which I am completely not), but I was the few who were on FB when they only allowed those with .EDU email addresses to sign up.  Remember those good old days??  Then they let the Myspace riff raff in and it all went to hell.  I deleted my real account awhile ago, I still have one because now it is the only way to get coupons for some deals. 

I have despised FB for quite some time now; I was always anti-social on it.  Now it's "Like Us" this and "Like Us" that.  I just do not trust them with any information.  Librarians get all up in arms about the OverDrive and Amazon connection, but who cares if Amazon knows what you're reading?  Undoubtedly, most Kindle readers already buy from Amazon so it isn't some big conspiracy about what they know about users.  What about all the information FB has on its users and sells on the regular?  But the library doesn't want to warn patrons about that because patrons wouldn't have any reason to come into the library and use the internet PC's, gotta keep those usage stats high!

I remember seeing a flow chart in regards to Web 2.0 commenting and library websites.  I wish I saved it because it was pretty amusing.  It seems that a lot of libraries jumped on the bandwagon just because it is the in thing.  Just having a Facebook account for the sake of having one is worse than not having one at all.  All I can say is, is that if you need an explanation of what a "troll" is then maybe you shouldn't be the one to run your library's blog or moderate the comment sections.  Personally, I think it is a waste of time and resources for the library to moderate it's own website, several blogs, Flickr account, YouTube account, Twitter account, and FB account.  Maybe I wouldn't have such a problem with the library's attempts at FB  if this was more of a secondary source of patron interaction.  The library has a website of it's own that most patrons visit regularly, what happened to using it fully?  The library needs to be more independent and not rely on a FOR-PROFIT(ahem, Evil OverDrive) for patron interactions.  If only the library would stop being such a needy stat-whore/online popularity contestant and stop worrying about the amount of "Likes" and "Followers" it has.

Year of the Tablet...

This time last year I had never owned a tablet.  Then it started with HP's firesale and I bought a Touchpad.  Around November the Christmas deals started to roll out and within 2 weeks I ended up buying an HTC Flyer, Nook Color, and a Samsung Tab 7, a week after that I bought an HTC View, and then finally another Touchpad.  So I started out 2012 with 6 tablets.

I originally bought them to practice downloading e-books from the library's OverDrive site.  I wanted to gain enough experience to give a detailed review and comparison but I was hooked on the HTC Flyer because of HTC Sense it felt just like a bigger version of my old phone: the HTC Inspire 4G, great phone with a horrible battery, don't buy it! --- I know have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and it really does live up to the hype.  In the end I kept the HTC View (a 32gb, black version of the Flyer) for my personal use.  I gave the Flyer to my sister and a Touchpad to my dad for Christmas, and sold the rest.

I personally LOVE the HTC Flyer/View.  The 7" form factor is perfect to carry around and has enough screen space to read/browse/email comfortably.  Personally, I couldn't spend that much money on a Kindle Fire or Nook Color when I could have a fully loaded tablet.  It's the same size and weight, why not get one that can take notes via a stylus or has front and rear facing cameras?  Then again not many people shop as diligently as I do for the good deals.

Every report from last week's CES says that 2012 is the "Year of the Ultralight" but I tend to disagree.  2012 is the year of the tablet.  With the amount of Kindle questions I am getting at the desk since Christmas, I am in no way shocked to hear that it is estimated that Amazon sold a million Kindles a week during December (one source).  On a side note, Hey ALA, is it now time to pay attention to Amazon or are we just going to chalk it up again as, "Amazon can't beat the library"?  I've never believed that tablets could/would ever replace laptops or desktops now or anytime in the near future; they are just another "must-have" electronic addiction we add to our ever expanding collection.

Today during our monthly meeting, we were told that e-books and a working knowledge of e-readers are now our top priority.  Circ and Info are now supposed to be able to explain to patrons the basics of downloading from OverDrive.  Just a couple months ago, we were supposed to redirect any e-book related questions to OverDrive.  So the library is not the quickest when it comes to adapting to current trends, hopefully they'll act much quicker to unite and defeat the evil empire that is OverDrive.