Another approach- I think the Colorado consortium did this, is to whitelabel the Bluefire App, which works with any Adobe-DRM ebook.

With the Rakuten acquisition of Overdrive, I think it it might be wise to let the dust settle and see what happens with Kobo. And I know of at least 2, maybe 3, maybe 4 companies poised to enter the US library market with apps of their own. Both in the Adobe ecosystem and outside of it.


> On Mar 25, 2015, at 9:34 AM, English, Eben <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Lauren,
> 
> There actually is a group working toward exactly this type of goal. It's a IMLS grant-funded initiative being organized by NYPL called Library Simplified:
> 
> http://www.librarysimplified.org/
> 
> You can find out more at the above link, but the basic goal of the project is to create an app for iOS and Android that allows libraries to integrate content from different ebook vendors into a seamless discovery and reading interface. I know that so far they've been working with 3M, Overdrive, and Baker & Taylor to allow content from these vendors to work within the app.
> 
> Currently the app is still in development, but I believe the target date for the initial roll-out is late April or early May.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Eben English
> Web Services Developer
> Boston Public Library
> 700 Boylston St.
> Boston, MA 02116
> 617.859.2238
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 7:39 PM, Lauren Magnuson <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> 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
>>