Ohio Digital Library—Streaming Video

The Ohio Digital Library has long provided streaming video, but to be blunt, I haven’t bothered looking for anything to watch on the site in ages because the selection wasn’t very good. Yet I couldn’t help but notice as I scrolled down the home page the other day that the selection has  improved. There are Oscar winners from recent years, such as The King’s Speech, The Iron Lady, and Django Unchained. There are television shows, individual episodes and complete seasons, ranging from Highlander to Sesame Street. The collection is still small, but it’s becoming something worth checking out.

And speaking of checking out, the process for video works just like books. Search or browse for video the same as you always have for books. When you find something you like, click on the cover. ODL has recently updated the look of what happens when you click a cover for all its items, including books and video. Select Sample, find out more about the title, add it to your wish list by clicking the ribbon, or click Borrow (or Place a Hold if unavailable).  

Find the item you want, then...

...click the cover to see the Borrow button.

As always, the item appears in the Bookshelf. To watch the video, just click Play (Streaming Video).

OverDrive, the company that supplies the items available at ODL, says that: “Streaming video is available on any device with a modern web browser and an internet connection. Specific titles may require the OverDrive app on Android and iOS.” On my Windows 8.1 laptop using Internet Explorer 11, the video popped right up in a new tab, no problems, no extra downloads necessary. As with most streaming video, moving the mouse or swiping near the bottom of the screen reveals a menu with options to Play/Pause, open Closed Caption, open in Full Screen, and adjust Volume.

A few odds and ends

Watch checkout lengths. You can set the default as long as 7 days, but other items are limited by the copyright holders to only 48 hours, sometimes even for complete seasons of TV shows.

After clicking Play, the option to return the title disappears from the bookshelf.

ODL does not save your place. If the browser is closed in the middle of a movie, when Play (Streaming Video) is selected again in the bookshelf, the movie starts over. More disappointing, ODL does not keep track of which episodes have been watched.

Shelia

Always Available and Always Yours

Some of us read classics. Lots of classics. And we read them over and over again. By a conservative estimate, I’ve read Jane Austen’s Emma ten times. I used to keep an eye out for cheap paperbacks to fill my classics collection, but now through the wonders of Project Gutenberg, I can have darn near any classic I want for free.   

 

Project Gutenberg is the largest and oldest digital library. Started in 1971, the mission of Project Gutenberg is to make public domain works available as e-books for free. (Public domain works, meaning they are no longer cover by copyright, generally include anything published before 1923.) There are now over 45,000 titles available from Project Gutenberg, and the big leg up the site has over others that offer free public domain e-books is that every Project Gutenberg title is proofread multiple times by the volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders.

 

Having been around since 1971, a lot of people know about Project Gutenberg, but did you know that you can download their e-books through the Ohio Digital Library? The Ohio Digital Library is where you’re already going to borrow library e-books from the Stark County District Library. Yet, have you noticed the Always Available icon on the home page?

 

Clicking or tapping on this icon leads to a page where the Always Available books can be searched or browsed. The copies of these e-books are provided by Project Gutenberg, but only the EPUB versions. (Other formats, including MOBI for Kindle and MP3 audio, must be downloaded directly from the Project Gutenberg website.) And here’s an interesting secret—I find it decidedly easier to download the Project Gutenberg books from the Ohio Digital Library site than from Gutenberg.org. Simply click or tap Download underneath the desired title, and it opens right up in whatever software or app is already installed on the device. 

 

 

This means that the software (Adobe Digital Editions) or app (OverDrive Media Console) that you’re already using to read EPUBs from the Ohio Digital Library will read these e-books as well. And other apps and software work just as well. For instance, I download my Project Gutenberg books, whether I get them directly from their site or from the Ohio Digital Library, to a free app called Freda. 

 

And unlike other e-books you borrow from the Ohio Digital Library, these books are not just always available, but always yours. Since they come from Project Gutenberg, any book downloaded this way has no return date, but is yours to keep forever. And you might want to keep it awhile—you never know when you might have the urge to read that favorite book for an eleventh time. 

 

Shelia 





 

 

The New OverDrive

The latest version of the Overdrive Media Console (OMC) app – version 3 – allows you to sync different devices under one account. This means you can now sync e-book or audio book progress across multiple devices. So when you start an audio book at home on your iPad you can pick up where you left off during your commute to work using your phone.

I’m currently using OMC to read The Wise Man’s Fear on my iPad. When I want to read but do not have my iPad with me – say during my lunch break at work – I log in to my OverDrive account on my phone, tap the book’s cover and get this message:

When I tap Yes I’m sent to the point in the book where I stopped reading at home on my iPad.

In addition to this feature the new OverDrive account also syncs bookmarks across devices as well as favorite libraries.

It is important to note that only devices capable of running version 3 of the Overdrive Media Console app can use these features. Devices that support OMC 3:

• Android v4.0 (or newer). This is the operating system on:
• New Android phones and tablets (like Nexus and Samsung Galaxy devices)
• Nook HD and NOOK HD+
• Kindle Fire HD and HDX
• Kobo Arc and Arc HD
• iOS v6.0 (or newer). This is the operating system on newer Apple iPhones and iPads.
• Windows 8. This is the operating system on newer Windows tablets.

Devices that do not yet support OMC 3:

• Dektop/laptop computers with older operating systems.
• Older Nooks (Nook Tablet and Nook Color)
• Sony Readers
• Older Kindles (Kindle 1st generation)
• Windows Phone devices
• Blackberry devices

Create Your OverDrive Account

If your device supports OMC 3 follow the steps below to create your OverDrive account. This account is different than the Adobe ID that you created when you first installed the app.

Open the OverDrive app on your device and then tap the menu button in the top left corner of the screen. Tap on Account from the menu of options. If you do not see Account then you may need to update your version of OMC. If you have updated or have the most recent version then your device is not compatible.

Tap on Sign Up to create your OvderDrive account.

You may log in using your Facebook account if you wish. Otherwise create an account using a valid email and password.

If you do this on each of your devices then syncing happens automatically. So when you get to your car and want to continue your audio book simply open the app, go to your Bookshelf and tap on the book's cover image it will begin playing right where it left off from your iPad.

Note: it’s also important that each device is registered to the same Adobe ID account. If the devices you would like to sync different Adobe IDs then it will not work properly. To change Adobe IDs tap on the menu button in the top left corner of the OverDrive app; then tap Settings.

To read more about these features and the new OverDrive visit the FAQ section of their website.

Happy Reading,
Brett

Your Ohio Digital Library Account

I’ve been borrowing e-books from the library for as long as the library has offered them. And through every upgrade and change, I’ve done my best to stay on top of the process of finding, borrowing, downloading, and reading the library’s e-books. But for some reason, I never paid much attention to my Account with the Ohio Digital Library aside from the Bookshelf showing what I have checked out, and the Holds section to see what’s happening with items I’ve requested. But last week I found myself poking around the other two sections of my Account—Lists and Settings—and I found two things I’d never seen before. On the off chance that others haven’t looked through their Account either, I thought I’d share my discoveries.

Lists

Now, I’d been in Lists before, and I knew that this is where ODL saved my Wish List items so I could find them later. But then I opened up the pull-down menu and saw that one of the options is Recommended for you. ODL didn’t do too bad recommending titles for me based on what I’ve checked out, although I already knew that I would like Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters since I checked it out and read it from ODL. Perhaps the algorithm will improve and the recommendations will get better, but for now, it’s an interesting feature, and I will at least consider the titles on the list.

 

 

Settings

Like Lists, I know I’ve been in Settings before, because this is where you can change your default Lending periods. For each format, select a short, medium, or long period (7, 14, or 21 days for e-books). This can be great of people who check out the allotted 10 items at a time, read them quickly, and then want more. In that case, 21 days would be an awfully long time. But for busy people who don’t have as much time to read as they would like, having 21 days to finish a title is wonderful. But if you scroll down farther, there is a High contrast setting. Switching to High from Standard, the background is black and the text and icons are in vibrant colors. This is a sort of “night” view that I know can be handy when looking at a screen in a dark room. I’m not sure many people would want to make this switch, but it’s nice to know the option exists. (Oh, and be sure to Save your changes before leaving the Settings page.)

 

 

Shelia

Finding Digital Library Material

For a long time when I talked to people about the easiest way to find e-books and e-audiobooks from the library, I admit that I would frequently recommend just skipping the Library’s online catalog. If you wanted to borrow a digital item, you would have to go to the Ohio Digital Library to find out if it was available, and then if it was, download it, or if it wasn’t, put it on hold. Then Hoopla came along, which offers another option for e-audio, so that added another site to check.   

 

But with a recent update to the Library’s online catalog, Encore, searching for digital materials has become so much better that I encourage everyone to start their search there. (Encore is the version of the catalog that’s on the Library’s home page on the left side.) Now the catalog lists what I think are the three most important facts about digital material.

 

1. Is the item available? 

 

This was always the big problem with searching for digital materials in the catalog previously. There would be a moment of elation when you discovered the library owned the e-book, only to have your joy melt away when you connected to the Ohio Digital Library and saw there were no available copies. Now you can see whether or not a digital item is available without ever leaving the Library’s catalog.

 



 

2. How long is the hold list and how many copies are there? 

 

If an item isn’t available, I can’t help asking “How long is the hold list?” The length of the list is now available in the catalog, although a long list should never deter you from placing a hold. If enough SCDL patrons want the same item, there’s a good chance more copies will be purchased. 

 

3. What site has the item? 

 

When the Library added Hoopla service, a second place to find e-audiobooks opened up. But rather than checking the Ohio Digital Library and Hoopla to see if either site has the item and if it’s available (Hoopla titles are always available), that information is easy to spot in the catalog.

 

 

Of course, the other great bonus here is that for those of us who want a book so badly we don’t care if it’s e-book, hardback, paperback, CD, e-audio, or any other format that can be imagined, there’s one simple place to start looking—the Library’s catalog. 

 

Shelia

 

 

 

 

 

I belong to the local Science Fiction group Harry. The upcoming meeting’s book discussion is Frank Herbert’s Dune. I’ve read the Dune series in the past and don’t really have the time to reread it before the next Harry meeting. I decided to go to the Literary Reference Center and check to see if it had a synopsis ior the story or any other fun tidbits.

 

I started with a Title search Dune.  As you can see this gives me 137 hits on the series with some of the hits not being about the Frank Herbert book.

I decided to go to the advanced search and added the author Frank Herbert  into the mix.

By doing the search this way I get 43 hits on the book .

I can now narrow the search to full text and  Plot Summaries by clicking the boxes on the left of the page.

I choose The Great Dune Trilogy because that is specifically on the book Dune wiwhich is the first book of the series.

The synopsis will then give me a short listing of information about the author and the various subject headings of the book.

 

One of the fun things that this database does is translate the synopsis into several different languages.

 

Also available is the ability to have the review read to you in either  American English, Austrailian English or British English

You can also regulate the speed and whether or not the words or sentences in the synopsis are highlighted.

By doing this and looking at some other articles I refreshed my knowledge of the book without having to reread it and I’m now ready for the  next Harry meeting.

Thanks for listening!
Norma

The eReader Room for Kids is Now Open

Have you had the chance to check out the new Ohio Digital Library for Kids? If you have children of your own, work with children, or know children with access to a digital device, go to http://www.ohioebooks.com/kids to explore the kid-friendly version of the Ohio Digital Library. It's a safe place for our youngest readers to download free eBooks and audio books, accessing only age appropriate content. All that's needed is a valid library card! No adult titles are available from this site; however, children's titles are still available from the main site.

Sign in using the button on the top right-hand side of the page and explore. To return to the main site to access the rest of the collection, just click or tap on the house in the upper left-hand corner.

The site is bright and colorful, and easy to use. In addition to searching by favorite title or author, you can browse by subjects (fiction, nonfiction, biography, comic and graphic novels, history, humor, mystery and suspense, and picture books), collections (new, recently returned), or even by levels (reading or interest level, Lexile Measure or ATOS level). The advanced search will limit the results by year published or device. There's even a section for award-winning titles.

The checkout process is the same as on the original site. Using a library card, you are able to download up to 10 titles at a time for a loan period ranging from 7 to 21 days. If you need help, our website has great  information and tutorials on downloading eBooks or audio books to your device. From our main page, click on or tap "Services", then "Computer Training", and finally "Digital Collection Instructional Material". There you will find information for your specific device.

Our youngest readers will enjoy using this fun site designed just for them and will certainly find something to suit every reading taste. There are titles for all ages ranging from Dora the Explorer and Fancy Nancy for the youngest readers, to Lemony Snicket and Percy Jackson for the older readers, with a multitude of titles in-between. Whether they want a favorite storybook or Disney character, or the latest Newbery award winner, there's something for everyone in the Ohio Digital Library for Kids. Happy reading!

Kathy