Comments on: OverDrive Has Different eBook Catalogs for Different Libraries

By: Liya Cornelius

Liya Cornelius — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:37:04 +0000

I just came across your blog while searching for this very exact topic. I’m a resident of California and I have library cards for San Francisco City and County, Sacramento County, Orange County, and now Folsom which is in Sacramento County but has a different Overdrive catalog. I was going to make a little bucket list project out of getting a library card for every county in CA, but now I realize that Overdrive has different catologs combining some less populated counties and breaking out cities from counties, etc (i.e. Oakland and Berkeley are cities next to each other and are both in Alameda County, but all three have different Overdrive catalogs). They certainly have created quite the racket for themselves.

By: DAlma

DAlma — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Interesting. I’ve had two library cards for a few years — one for Scottsdale, AZ and one for San Francisco, CA — and if I can’t find a book at one overdrive catelog, I switch to the other. They are always different results, including different numbers of copies, different books on record, and different numbers of people on the waitlist. I’ve always assumed this was just because each library system purchased different books.

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By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:01:17 +0000

Pamela, I totally agree with you on this one. In my family, when one of us buys a printed book, it goes through the whole family. I save my books from one child to the next. Is this somehow illegal now? The book was purchased, publisher and author paid with US Dollars. At the point of sale, the item becomes the buyers own property, to do with as they wish. But it seems when it comes to ebooks, we are only allowed to read them on ONE reader, or buy many different forms of it for all the different readers. That is like telling me I can only read it in the kitchen, but it is illegal to read it on the beach.

I firmly believe that Libraries, which are suffering from funding costs already, should be able to lend their books, ebooks, etc to all their patrons. This may be the only way some can even get their hands on a book. Sometimes I think there are those so money hungry, that they bite off the hand that feeds them. I think it is sad that Libraries are being limited, and scary too, the more the Libraries are limited, the more they will be a dying breed.

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By: Pamela bourque

Pamela bourque — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:05:56 +0000

what I really don’t get is how it’s the publishers business once the sale is made, as to who the hell can read it.( I guess they don’t realize most every book bought is loaned to various friends and relatives)

DT, you make a great point. I’m certain I’m not the only frustrated voracious reader wishing they could a way around this….

By: Pamela bourque

Pamela bourque — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:46:02 +0000

I shared the site with my local library, and dearly pray and hope someone will end the monopoly! We need more people with a heart like Ben Franklin’s, God rest his soul, (but I wouldn’t be averse to his haunting a few key people at overdrive.)

Our digital library encompasses the entire southwestern region of louisiana, after all, there is one major city, lake charles, and hundreds of small towns. My screen shots had more of some, and less of others, for instance 11 for janet.
And beyond the ridiculous in the amount of holds on popular books one has to wait through until it’s your turn. Don’t get me started on the wait for an interlibrary loan…..

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:54:30 +0000

Well written contracts include definitions and clarifications. Otherwise companies leave themselves open to lawsuits over misrepresentation and matters of interpretation. It happens too often in the corporate world.

>>Overdrive states this succintly in their blog post:
>>“Each publisher or author has the ability, on a title-by-title basis, to set the permissions, copyright protection settings, price, and other rules associated with digital lending of their eBook or other digital content.”

A blog post is not a contract. That information need to be included in the contract.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:24:21 +0000

To get OverDrive at your library, you would need to ask the library to pay for a yearly subscription to the service as well as spend additional dollars to obtain content (eBooks and eAudioBooks). You could go to the library’s board or commission meeting (every library has a governance body like this of some sort). You could speak to the director, or the head of collections/acquisitions. Try making the suggestion, and asking why they don’t have it yet. It’s possible that it’s too expensive for their budget, or that they don’t think it’s a good service for the dollars spent.

By: Morris Brown

Morris Brown — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:38:19 +0000

In a world that’s rapidly advancing with technology weaving in and outer of our lives, my question, comment or complaint is simple. I am a resident of the the Hampton main library in Hampton, Va and when I try to use the overdrive system for borrowing an ebook, I run into a wall because I can’t. The reason why I can’t is because the available libraries that offer the overdrive library system do not accept my libarary card because they (the neighboring libraries) are of a different county. How can we get the overdrive system in Hampton, va to avoid this dilemma? Thank you for your time and patience in resolving this matter.