downloadable books

Since InfoLine receives a fair number of phone calls from customers regarding MOLDI, I try to occasionally scope it out and see what has changed. This afternoon, however, I delved a little deeper: viewed the tutorial, took some notes, logged in with my library card number, and browsed all of the formats. Here are a few of the things I learned from the tutorial:

• you need to download the OverDrive Media Console before you are able to download any material
• the quick search option offers ISBN searches
• the advanced search option lets you combine fields (ie. you can search by subject and date added to site)
• Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a term that refers to technologies used to control access to software, music, movies, or other digital media. DRM prevents illegal file-sharing. Some parameters are set by publishers. By clicking on a title, you can view the digital rights associated with it. These rights will explain what you can and cannot do with the title once you have downloaded it.

And here are my discoveries after spending some time browsing:

• MOLDI offers study guides on various topics (like foreign languages) as well as Sparknotes
• there is an “always available” collection of movies – lots of comedy titles here, including the hilarious Jim Gaffigan show Beyond the Pale (“hot pocket!”)
• the audiobook collection seems pretty extensive; I found classics, early readers, chapter books, middle school and teen titles (John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines), and even graphic novels. I wonder what the statistics are for child and teen users.
• the music collection is comprised of mostly classical music – wonder if this has anything to do with music-downloading sites like limewire and iTunes…

My overall impression of MOLDI is a favorable one. If I had a portable player, I’m sure I would download titles frequently. There is the option of just downloading materials to my computer, but I’m not compelled to sit at my computer and read or listen to a book. I suppose I could see myself downloading an e-book that was some sort of study guide or reference material, but you’ll never find me sitting at my desk downloading a big fat novel.