How can we make electronic lending better for libraries?

[terriko]

I got an audiobook to play on my MP3 player today, and it was a chore and a half with around 5 hours worth of upgrades. I could write a post about the procedure, but that's been done.

Brad Colbow's comic pretty much sums up the DRM problem best, I think. Getting DRM-protected content sucks, but libraries often have such systems in place to allow lending. I hate DRM, but I like my library, and I really like the idea of libraries being able to lend electronic content in a way that makes sense.

What I want to know is "what we are doing about it?" I know plenty of folk interested in open technology/culture... do any of you know of alternative software available to libraries? Resources they could use that would be more awesome and still enable lending?

(Related reading: Across the Digital Divide talks about why the whole "print is dead" thing leaves a lot of people in the dust. If you think about it in that context, making it easier to lend electronic resources in the future could be a bigger deal than you'd think.)

Usually I see people recommend you donate to the EFF or somesuch. And that's a good idea in general, but... I mean, I know I'd like to just have a world that was DRM-free. But apparently this is not a solution that works for my library, or more to the point it's not a solution that works for the places where my library obtains content. I want DRM to be dead, but I also would like to be able to borrow electronic resources a little sooner than never, thanks. Surely there are folk out there who are willing to sideline the ideology for now and just try to make something that's actually good?

So... what *are* we doing to make it easier for libraries to lend us electronic stuff?

Comments

[terriko]

I don't really care about your personal solution; I'm more looking for something that I could take to the library and say "Hey, this might be better for you than OverDrive." You know, the way open source folk suggest Moodle to universities using Blackboard/WebCT?

My local library serves an area that is relatively poor. I'm guessing that they're providing electronic resources because it's a way to enhance their catalog at a relatively minimal cost, or they probably wouldn't be doing it. At the very least, electronic resources can't be lost or damaged so they save some there. So far, I've noticed that they had older books/audiobooks available electronically that they don't have in the libraries themselves, which is very convenient if you're trying to catch up on a series that the library hasn't been buying since the beginning. It's likely not an issue of transitioning away entirely, but in supplementing the collection.

[robbat2]

From my present consulting with libraries, Overdrive is NOT cheap, but where electronic reserves do excel is that they take no physical storage space, and can scale for lots of simultaneous copies (Overdrive has specific optional programs for this).

I know of no present open-source option to replace OverDrive. The problem is more publisher buy-in than Overdrive's broken software. The publishers keep demanding DRM lockdowns.

[heliumbreath]

L. (who works in library automation) tells me that NetLibrary is the other major DRM lending scheme, but it's at least as problematic as OverDrive. Some libraries will loan out readers/players with content set up by library staff, so at least save you faffing with oddball schemes when you don't have the precise hardware and software the scheme assumes.

I can't offer you a DRM scheme that works nicely, especially as I believe there's no such thing.

The content creators own the content (I remember Linus saying, approximately, "Linux is free because I gave it to you, not because you had any right to take it"), so it's up to them to set terms. They can give it away for free, lock it up and sit on it, distribute unlocked copies on the honor system, use schemes like OverDrive, or for that matter invent a new DRM scheme where I have to moon my webcam as biometric authentication. All we can do is say "Yes" and accept their offering or "No" and walk away.

And I see a great need for the community to tell them that their content is not compelling enough for us to jump through DRM hoops to get at it. Maybe that will eventually nudge them toward the honor system. It's a mess with no easy solutions.