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Carolyn Rokke (CMS) is inviting comments on a new service. If you wish to try the service and submit your comments, use the link below to go to My iLibrary, then log in to the wiki (or create an account,if you haven't done so already) to leave your comments in the comment-space below.
Early in 2009, SPL signed on with Califa (a non-profit organization that works to bring new products and discounts on products and services to California libraries) along with several other public libraries to bring more MP3 content to our library customers. The product is called MyiLibrary and it’s supplied by Ingram, the same company that supplies many of our print books and audio books.
Visit http://sacramentopl.myilibraryaudio.com to try it out.
Your library card number & PIN are your passport to downloading. MyiLibrary uses a media manager just like Overdrive does. Ingram’s media console is proprietary, too, so you will need to download its media console. IT has been sent the information they need to push the Ingram Media Console to staff PCs, which they will pursue. However, if you’re an MP3 user, you can certainly try this at home. I’d be very interested in any feedback you have about the titles, ease of use, helpfulness of “help” files, comparison with Overdirve, etc.,
We’re not dropping Overdrive. But the public made it clear how much they value iPod-compatible content, and we haven’t been able to meet expectations with Overdrive. MyiLibrary is a new product. When we go live, we will be the second entity in the country to offer this product (Baltimore County Library went live a short while ago). We will be offering this as a consortium. Each library’s site has its own look, but we’re sharing the materials and pooling our money to buy content.
My iLibrary is now available to the public at http://www.saclibrary.org/?pageId=991.
Carolyn Rokke
Library Materials Manager
Sacramento Public Library
crokke@saclibrary.org
916 264-2866
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Comments (5)
Ann said
at 4:01 pm on Jun 4, 2009
Testing the comments. ASO/CEN
akajill said
at 2:07 pm on Jun 6, 2009
I downloaded a title using my MacBook and transferred it to my iPod with absolutely no difficulties, so I give thumbs up for ease of use from that perspective. I thought the title selection was good too, though I vote for carrying more teen titles and we definitely need some children's titles too!
Ann said
at 11:31 pm on Jun 13, 2009
The process of checking out a book is so fast! I like that you can choose your checkout period (1 wk to 3 wks in daily increments.) I think patrons will use this a lot, even though they can only have 3 titles checked out at the same time. They'll be able to turn over their checked out items faster.
I was expecting to see a Media Manager download link, but didn't find one. After reading the help file, I learned you are offered an opportunity to download the media manager when you check out your book. The downloads of both the media manager and the book went smoothly. but I didn't see an opportunity to choose which parts to download - once you click "download", it starts,and you get all of them. Sometimes I like to download the first part only, and then come back to get the rest later, depending on the amount of time I have. As with OverDrive, each part seems to be about an hour long, which I understand is about what will fit on one CD. The book I chose has 13 parts, so the download took over an hour! I think OverDrive downloads are faster.
It is easier to transfer files to an iPod than to an iPod Shuffle. Special directions are provided for the Shuffle, but they seemed pretty convoluted to me. Maybe it will seem easier once I have a chance to try them. Also, the ability to transfer the parts to my player wasn't available until all the parts had downloaded. However, Playback began after the first part had completely downloaded. I'll try transferring to my Shuffle this weekend, and also to the Zen Nano.
Ann said
at 8:13 pm on Jun 14, 2009
Found the instructions for transferring downloaded books to an iPod Shuffle, and ran into a problem right away: couldn't find the checkbox in the main iTunes view they said to be sure was checked- I must have a different version of iTunes. I explored all the options and settings I could find, but was never successfully able to transfer the book so it would play. I could see the title, cover art and parts in iTunes, but was not able to transfer them to my Shuffle nor to play them. The error message says: "Did not transfer ...". It looked like there might have been an option to burn to CD, but I was not interested in doing that. I'm disappointed! Do we have a contact for tech support?
Amy said
at 11:08 am on Jun 30, 2009
The interface was very straightforward and easy to use if you were only interested in browsing the whole audio book collection. I wish there had been more options for browsing by genre listed on the left navigation bar. Also, non-fiction had lots of fiction titles listed, like Slaughterhouse Five and Vanity Fair. Maybe only a nit-picky librarian would notice that, though.
The search box was convient though and seemed to work well. Plus, the selection was good enough that I was able to find a few titles with just a quick look through.
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