How to borrow an ebook from a library
Here’a a post about my experience of interacting with the ebook loan system in my local library. I do some reflection on the value or otherwise of such systems in a column published in the Birmingham Post newspaper. There I summarised the experience as:
“After a fiddle and a couple of emails to the helpdesk, it actually worked”
Well that’s kind of true but the fiddling was prolonged at points and although it works it strikes me that lending books out in this way is hardly going to change the world of libraries forever. For the most part I’ll focus on practicalities since the copyright stuff is a bit bonkers to be honest.
So here’s what you need to do to get an ebook (audio books use a separate system) from Birmingham Library Services in the UK. I’ll mention what happens on a computer and on a mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad. I didn’t have a compatible e-reader to test it on. I’ve put all the screen grabs at the bottom of this post, there are links to them against specific step:
STAGE ONE – prep
- Join the library.
- Decide if you want to read books on a computer screen or a mobile device.
- Check if your mobile device is compatible on the overdrive website. Put away your Kindle – those are compatible for US libraries only.
- So you want to read ebooks on a computer? Download Adobe Digital Editions and sign up for an account with Adobe.com
- Still on your computer? Okay, open up Adobe Digital Editions (pic) and authorise it with your Adobe account details.
- Want to read a book on your iPhone or iPad? Download the ‘Overdrive’ app from the app store (pic)
- Authorise the app with your Adobe account details.
STAGE TWO – getting a book
- On your computer or on your mobile device (ignore that app for now) point your browser to birmingham-uk.lib.overdrive.com
- Click on ‘My Account’ and from there enter your library card number (pic). Unusually, your library PIN number is not required.
- It didn’t work did it. I forgot to tell you, and they forgot to tell you, that you need to omit the last two digits (I’ve raised the issue so hopefully this will change. Now go repeat the above step.
- Take a look through the available ebooks (pic).
- Choose a book as long as it is available. Mostly there is only one available copy of each book. If another user has taken it our, it’s out. You can add it to a wish list and you’ll get it when it comes back in. That’s right, it’s just like a normal book (pic)
- ‘Add to basket’ and ‘Proceed to checkout’.
- At the ‘Confirm Check Out’ page you will notice that you can only have 3 ebooks out at one time and that the lending period is 21 days (you can return it early but it will auto-return/auto-delete from your device at that end of 21 days).
- At this stage the process is slightly different whether you are on a computer or mobile device
- On a computer, clicking ‘download’ results in a small .acsm file being downloaded that will open in Adobe Digital Editions, prompting the download of the whole book. You can now enjoy your book.
- On the iPhone/iPad, clicking ‘download’ (pic) opens the Overdrive app and the book is downloaded to it.
- Navigation on the mobile device is easy to manage (pic and pic).
- See what I said in Stage two point number 7 above. On the mobile returning is pretty easy (pic).
- The reason I’ve navigated you via the web browser even if you are using a mobile is that all the Overdrive app does is send you there anyway to browse and get the books.
- The search function is flaky in the app. A search via postcode doesn’t work and browsing through the regions results in the alarming discovery that the West Midlands isn’t listed at all and that Birmingham is listed in the South West section. A search for ‘Birmingham’ lists all the US Birminghams as well.
- Once you have gone through Stage Two above using your mobile the app will then have a shortcut for Birmingham Library on it (pic). So you can then begin your journey using the app or of course just have a shortcut in your browser
And that’s it. Are you still with me? Did you enjoy your ebook? It’s complex, too complex perhaps and having to ‘authorise’ devices might put people off even before they’ve left Stage one. There are niggles to sort (the one about the library digits and the location of Birmingham on the app) but eventually, the book does get to your device and you can read it.
I’ll let others debate the restrictive practices of publishers but for the meantime it seems we’re stuck with the one copy, one lender restrictions (and get this, some publishers make the library re-buy the book after 26 loans).
Digital jobs up north – get one now
At my workplace, Birmingham City University, we had a very illuminating talk to students last week from John Denton who is Managing Editor, TV Platforms, BBC Future Media and Technology. He sometimes contributes to the BBC Internet blog.
The talk is below and a lot of it was about the integration or otherwise of social media platforms into TV viewing. There’s still a core belief in scheduling though – “the power of the schedule should drive what’s on all devices”.
Appended to John’s presentation is one from his colleague Andrew Bowden who is the ‘Product manager’ for the iPlayer.
At the end of these two presentations came a plug for the BBC’s planned move to Salford next year. BBC Future Media and Technology are making the move as well as other departments and John made it clear that there were opportunities for the people in the room. In fact he cited a potential 70+ new roles being created in his area. ‘Come to Salford‘, was the message – the students salivated, my heart sank a little.
Ah well, maybe we just lobbied the wrong broadcaster in the hope of creating digital jobs here in the West Midlands. Or perhaps we’ve got 70+ new roles ourselves but they’re not in a single institution.
The talk came courtesy of the BSEEN enterprise programme.
Paper on Advantage West Midlands’ Digital Media Cluster
During the summer the Business Cluster Opportunity Group that represents the Digital Media industry in the West Midlands asked me to produce a kind of positioning paper whilst the discussions were ongoing about the formation of Local Economic Partnerships (LEP).
The group was formed in 2003 so the paper is kind of saying: ‘don’t dump that knowledge, it might be useful’. It’s probably not a group that too many people have a wider awareness of but it actually did a lot of the strategic positioning work around placing ‘digital’ as a key focus in the region’s economic strategy.
It’s had a wide distribution via email to the various business/public sector bods who were doing the LEP lobbying but I suspect it’ll never get formally published anywhere so I thought I’d dump it on here.
An excerpt from the executive summary:
“In the current climate where business support policy is being reshaped and support mechanisms rethought, this paper strongly makes the case for those groups forming new partnerships to draw on the existing expertise of the West Midlands Digital Media Cluster Opportunity Group”
Digital Media Sector Cluster Paper 2010 Final
Paper in full (PDF).
Digital Strategy for the West Midlands
I gave a presentation at the LUCID dissemination event today in which I proposed that the region needs to think afresh about setting a strategy for identifying opportunities in the digital economy. I know, sounds grand doesn’t it. The bottom line is that I have to write a short paper for Advantage West Midlands to influence their agenda in this area.
I’ll be writing that paper on a blog platform over at digitalstrategywm.co.uk.
The theme I’m using (the same one they are using for the Digital Britain consultation) allows for comments on each paragraph which I’m hoping will get populated sufficiently so that I can work them into the paper I send back. I’d welcome co-authors as well as commentators although I’ll appreciate it if the thought of writing strategy fills you with dread. The site is looking a bit bare at the moment but I’ll be setting out the sections of the paper very soon so do subscribe to the RSS feed. In the meantime I’ve posted up the presentation that kicks it off both here and on the consultation site.
Hanging about on the wrong side of the curve
Just thought I’d get this down as it’s an issue raised in the meeting I’m sitting in as I type this now:
“Are the city’s creative industries too far on the other side of the social media curve that they’ve forgotten how to engage with everybody else?”
The meeting is generally made up of representatives from businesses (big and small), support agencies, funding agencies and the like. I gave a brief presentation on social media and how the wider business sector might make more use of it (much like the one I gave at Aston Science Park in January).
One of the points made after my bit was that although the Creative sector is well ahead of the game, and ahead of the curve, in taking up social media technologies they’re in danger of cutting themselves off. Specifically, cut off to those seeking to enter the sector. The argument being that creatives have become harder to find and communicate with, particularly to those who lack developed digital literacy skills or indeed access to the internet. It was clear behind the query there was concern about the diversity of the creative sector.
Does this ring true? Or is it actually easier now in that once you’ve found the way in you get opened up to a very wide range of contacts much quicker than previously? Thoughts welcome.
Social Media ‘Seminar for Success’
I did a presentation at one of Aston Science Park’s ‘Seminars for Success’ this week – I don’t do many 7.30am starts so that’s almost worth a post in itself. All I want to do here is say thanks to those that sent me positive feedback afterwards and a general hello to some new followers on Twitter and LinkedIn. All the speakers’ presentations are posted up on the Science Park website and for reference mine is below also. It looks a bit brief without the arm-waving and additional anecdotes but you get the general point. Any questions please get in touch (in the comments or dave [at] daveharte.com):
Writing about worms & business
I’ll avoid cross-posting in future but my first posting at the Digital Birmingham blog is about a useful example of how social media can be used by small businesses:
I’m always looking for examples of how social media can support small businesses. I’ve raised the question before using the local builder as an example. Why on earth would the bloke who knocked a hole in my wall have a reason to use any kind of social media tool?
Well I found a partial answer to that in a video from Herefordshire firm, Wiggly Wigglers (amongst other things they sell worms for composting). Founder Heather Gorringe explains how a shift to social media over tradititional media helped cut her advertising costs without cutting her customer base.
What’s clear is that Heather knows her customer extremely well: “we sell stuff that gardeners may not know they want”. Of course Heather’s firm have had an e-commerce presence for quite a while but they’ve embraced social media in a big way.
She has a blog, a facebook group, uses podcasts and is all over Youtube. I can’t help wonder why Wiggly Wigglers aren’t on twitter (there’s certainly plently of chat about them). Social Media is ideal for building a community around your products, for ensuring customers value the advice you give them and the knowledge-sharing that comes from connecting to each other. Increasing value-added rather than cutting prices sounds like a good strategy in an economic downturn. Previously Wiggly Wigglers had bought in customer lists, now in effect they create their own customer lists for free through word-of-mouth on social media.
For her efforts Heather has won a global award for Small Business Excellence – that’s right, a worm seller from Hereford beat off international competition. Well done to her. We need more local and regional social media champions from the wider business community. Here in Birmingham I think we’re certainly adept at knowing how to make a buck by playing the local card – but maybe we could take tip or two from a rural worm-grower about how to build a global community who care enough to come back again and again.
Big City Plan – Digital Question Found!
It is confusing I know but the Big City Plan Consultation does indeed allow you to answer a question about digital connectivity. There seemed to be some concern that it didn’t but there it is, tucked away at the end of section 4 of the ‘Big City Plan Work in Progress’. If you click under 4.11 Street Design you’ll find it (yes I know that don’t make sense) The question is number CON 13:
How can Birmingham provide a digital infrastructure to enable new and existing businesses to have a competitive advantage, globally and locally? Can a ‘Virtual Birmingham’ improve people’s understanding and appreciation of the city centre, increase opportunities for the visitor economy and attract global business interests to trade with or invest in the city centre and enable the city to achieve its ‘Connected City’ aspirations both locally and internationally?
How should Birmingham ensure that the development of new households within the city centre have a digital infrastructure that supports family living across all generations and supports the flexible lifestyle requirements of 21st century living?
Addendum: On the leaflet section of the consultation there’s a shorter question (no.25) about Digital (scroll to bottom of link):
How can Birmingham provide a digital infrastructure to enable new and existing businesses to have a competitive advantage, globally and locally?
Obviously, go answer it there rather than here.
(pic found at Dave & Bry)