OverDrive Media Console App for Iphone and Ipad: Bringing Library Books to the 21st Century in Redlands
May 18, 2011 Leave a comment
By Michael Reiter, Attorney at Law.
As a small business owner in Redlands, California, I use technology to help deliver the best legal services to my clients. One of the newest pieces of technology I have acquired is an Apple iPad 2. Though it is very similar to my iPhone, its size allows more than cursory internet browsing and book reading. Obviously, because of the size, viewing video is better.
I discovered an app called OverDrive Media Console which allows you to borrow eBooks from public libraries and view them on your iPhone and iPad.
Browsing a book on iPhone is possible, but not ideal. An Amazon Kindle works as an excellent stand-alone electronic reader, but they are just getting in to library lending, and an iPad 2 has some advantages over the Amazon Kindle (though the Kindle is a superior electronic reader).
If you are a card holder at the A.K. Smiley Public Library, you can download books for two weeks or seven days depending on the title. You can also put books on hold if they already checked out, and you do not have to worry about your book being overdue.
Other Southern California libraries participate in the program, so you should check your public library’s website. You can use OverDrive Media Console on your personal computer, iPhone and iPad. The iPad app works the best (I haven’t downloaded the personal computer version) for me. You also have to sign up for a free Adobe account for digital rights management.
Though the public domain titles in iBooks and the Kindle store are fine, it is nice to have a source to borrow current, copyright protected books. Right now, the title selection (and the availability) is limited. However, I was able to download and read David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR, Second Edition. The book was very easy to read and had good, common sense advice. The book is copyrighted 2010, so it is not yet out of date.
The OverDrive Media Console itself was similar to iBooks, though I tended to unintentionally turn pages. I liked the night-reading mode. If your library supports the OverDrive Media Console, I would recommend you download the application.
About Michael Reiter, Attorney at Law