I'm curious to know if anyone has explored creating a mobile app for their
library that would facilitate downloading /reading library ebooks from
multiple library ebook vendors.  I'm envisioning an app that would allow
the user to browse ebooks from multiple platforms (e.g., ebrary, EBSCO) and
enable downloading and DRM management stuff right in the app.

I can think of a million roadblocks to creating something like this
(publishers, vendors, Adobe, etc.)  But I can also think of a lot of good
reasons why this would be very useful (the process to download an ebook
from an academic library is, for the most part, ludicrous).

I know there's Overdrive - and ebrary has it's own app, or whatever, and
there are apps like Bluefire that can be used with library ebooks - but
something non-platform specific that could conceivably work for multiple
library ebook platforms (and be customized by a library to allow the reader
to browse collections) is what I have in mind.  I also really dig this
Reader's First (http://readersfirst.org/) initiative, which it looks like
is wrangling with a lot of the policy /vendor side of things.

Feel free to contact me off list with any information / ideas / advice.
This feels like a kind of enormous problem, and a lot of libraries could
benefit from a group working toward a technical solution - but perhaps such
a group / initiative already exists?

Thanks in advance,

Lauren Magnuson
Systems & Emerging Technologies Librarian, CSU Northridge
Development Coordinator, PALNI