This is evidently what 3M and Overdrive are providing for vendors like III to integrate the ebook products with the ILS. The question will be, will those APIs be available to individual libraries, not just to ILS vendors?

Cindy Harper
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-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Erik Sandall
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 12:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Ebook reader app

Hi,

If I'm not mistaken, this would require ebook vendors to expand their APIs to include the ability to checkout and download. I know of no vendor who does this.

But maybe I'm wrong on both counts...

Erik.

--
Erik Sandall, MLIS
Electronic Services Librarian & Webmaster Mechanics' Institute
57 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
415-393-0111
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On 3/24/2015 5:31 PM, Becky Schneider wrote:
> Here is an article that explores how such an app could be developed 
> using existing technology:
>
> http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2013/building-a-community-o
> f-readers-social-reading-and-an-aggregated-ebook-reading-app-for-libra
> ries/
>
> Becky Schneider
> Reference Librarian
> Fauquier County Public Library
>
> 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
>>