• MP3s
• Podcasts
• Digital Books
• Movie downloads.

We then discussed how libraries would store this content. Would it be on a central server? Would it be available through an online digital service? Would the library still buy physical copies of content? Would the library check out content players to patrons with preloaded content?

We talked briefly about what equipment a library would have to purchase to provide for digital content. If the library doesn’t purchase or provide technology to patrons, then this could drive a wedge deeper into the digital divide.

We also briefly discussed the issue of DRM. Aurora public library has a service called Media Mall that allows patrons to “check out” digital content. It only resides on the computer for a limited amount of time before automatically being erased or uplayable (returned) from the computer. Unfortunately these downloads are not playable on iPods, only through the Windows Media Player (double check me on that).

I’m a Mac user.

Okay. I’m going to state the obvious. Macs are a very small portion of the home computer ecology. I can’t expect everybody to create applications that support Macs when there really is very little market for it. I absolutely support that idea. I was disappointed that I can’t download audio books to listen to on my computer, but I can live with that.

Here’s what really bothers me. iPods dominate the audio market. (source, source, source) Chicago Public Library has bought into a service that basically locks out iPod users which happen to be a majority of the audio playback market. Now even if somebody has an iPod they could still be a Windows user and therefore listen to the audio book on their Windows machine but I really doubt that. I don’t have any data to back me up but I’m willing to bet that most people that listen to audio books are listening to them while they are doing something else like driving, exercising, commuting to work, etc. They are probably not just sitting in front of their computer. CPL has bought into an audio book download service that probably locks out a majority of the people that would download an audio book and listen to it. It would be nice if CPL and other libraries that use this service demanded compatibility with all audio playback devices (mp3 players and the like) so that ALL their patrons could use this fantastic service. (By the way, I am not an iPod owner.)

There is a rumor that Apple might be opening up their Fairplay DRM a bit for licensed vendors, so maybe Overdrive will be able to support iPods at some point in the future.

One thing that I should clear up is that I do not support checking out materials from the library and ripping them to your computer. I was taken to task for that at another blog and the other writer is absolutely right. My purpose for using the audiobook was for an author presentation I was giving in a class I was taking. Please correct me if I’m wrong but as far as I understand it, it is within my fair use right to incorporate 30 seconds or 10% of an audio clip (whichever is less) in any multimedia presentation that I create. So if I checked out an audio book on CD (with no DRM) and ripped a portion (according to fair use guidelines) to my computer to place in a powerpoint, that’s okay. With Overdrive DRM, (I can’t use this because I own a mac) I can’t do this because according to the DMCA circumventing DRM is illegal (and windows users that I have talked to about this know of several different ways to possibly circumvent this DRM). I understand that CPL wants to expand service to their patrons, but it shouldn’t necessarily be at the cost of fair use.

Then again, you could always just check out the CD and rip it to your computer, then you can use it anywhere and anyhow you want.

P.S.
I didn’t realize it, but some audio books from Overdrive can be burned to CD but others cannot. It depends on the wishes of the publisher.

First off, I ran across a feed from boingboing.net that in turn points to this document on ALA’s site. It is a quite in depth primer on DRM for librarians written by Michael Godwin. When I say “in depth” I mean it. It’s a 44 page document that goes into definitions, history and policy of DRM. Honestly, I’ve only read about a quarter of it (and skimmed the rest), but my intentions are honorable and I will read it in its entirety… soon. This paper is a must read for anyone who is unfamiliar with DRM and would like to learn about the issue. It paints a quite thorough picture.

The second resource I ran across (I hadn’t forgot about it, I had just misplaced it) is a link to a presentation given by Lawrence Lessig, the copyright (or should I say copyleft) lawyer. His presentation can be found here. It’s about 15 to 20 minutes long (I think) and takes a few minutes to load. It’s well worth the wait and really gives a great perspective on what is going on today with copyright and how we (the average citizen) are loosing our rights even though technology is essentially enabling us with content creation and alteration.

All of this is pretty heavy reading and listening (I mean emotionally heavy). This is not happy stuff. In our day and age there is a constant struggle for control by the “powers that be.” We need to educate our users and ourselves in order to fight it.

Copyleft symbol taken from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Copyleft.svg .

I was browsing my RSS feeds today, getting caught up on all my back reading when I found this post from Sept. 29 at librarian.net. (Take a look at the powerpoint presentation, it gives a great rundown on what FLOSS is.) It’s great to see people talking about FLOSS. I’m constantly telling people about open source applications. (So far, for me, the big open source application winner has been Audacity.) The one criticism that I have about this post is that if you want people to take the open source leap, you should introduce it to them in small steps. It’s one thing to let libraries know about open source solutions for Windows, or Mac. It’s another thing to get them to drop their current OS and hop on the open source wagon completely (Linux). I think that might be a little bit too much of a leap of faith for some people.

This summer my work was selling old computers with a monitor very inexpensively. I was seriously considering purchasing one and setting it up with Ubuntu Linux for my wife so that she would have email and internet access during the day while I had the laptop. I didn’t because we really didn’t have the funds or the space, but I’m still keeping the option open. I’m willing to take the chance because I’m familiar with some open source projects and I understand some of the risks that are involved with using open source software. I’m not a coder but I do know my way around a command line… a little bit.

If we want to spread the open source message we really should be trying to “transition” people into it. We should be giving libraries open source solutions for their current OS (probably Windows, but could be Mac OS X) so that they can get their feet wet and feel the savings when they can go with a free solution rather than proprietary one.

Practically speaking, we can create an open source distribution CD for people and give it to them to try out. Since I’m a Mac user, I’ll use Mac as an example. I’ll download several open source programs for Mac: Audacity (sound editor), NeoOffice (Microsoft Office alternative for Mac, There is also OpenOffice, but this involves some technical stuff to install), Firefox (web browser), Adium (Instant Messaging), and VLC (video player). Burn it to a CD and then give it to somebody to try out on their computer.

One final note…
Oh the irony. The post mentions Howard County Library as switching completely to open source. If you dig around their website in their electronic resources section, you’ll find that digital and audio books are available through Overdrive and Net Library. These services can only be used on Windows machines using Windows Media Player because of the DRM that is included in the download. Any audio books downloaded using these services cannot be used at Howard County Library computers because they are running Linux. Isn’t that just a kick in the pants.