I think the Buy Now has been active for a while – It’s been on mine since I started a year ago. I tried it once – it seemed to work except I was too frustrated with B&N, new NOOK Tablet, etc. to complete the purchase.

I too wish there was an option to Buy for my Library and that the donation option offered gave me a warm fuzzy – I have no way of knowing if my Library gets that credit or not.

As for ADS – I don’t look at them.
As for selling eBooks – no problem! My sister buys eBooks and I realize that the Library lending function limits the Publishers’ & Authors’ income stream.

Again – thank you for doing this (both OverDrive & BrianH.)

I love it enough, I would pay for an advanced version. (It would be great if I could purchase eBooks to be donated directly to my Library through B&N or any other outlet. I don’t use the Nook to purchase books because I don’t need to retain copies of most of what I’ve read.)

GOOD: bookbag – I select books available and then whittle the bookbag down to specifically the one(s) I want.

BAD: 14 checkouts & returns in 7 days. I read too much, too quickly and my library choices are limited, so when a book is available I can’t wait 24 hours to check it out – it’s not there the next day. AGAIN, I would be willing to pay for more options!

NEEDED: Some way to keep track of what I’ve read. Perhaps, when I click Delete then Return, it could include an option to save the Author & Title to a list on my device. Charge us for it! An APP?

Thank you.

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Hi Brian-

I’ll try my best to address the status of your suggestions and those in the comments to your blog.

Your suggestions about bookbag, reducing/combining checkout steps, clarifying format selection and modifying the search algorithm are all among our New Feature Requets on file, and the development team will consider-and likely implement-many of these when we redesign our Digital Library Reserve (DLR) interface. The DLR redesign is a big project, however, so I don’t have a timetable for completion.

Your “direct link to software download page” is a solution that we’re currently working on, and libraries could see this change soon.

Our “New Feature Requests” database is part of our internal customer relationship management system, which is not a public interface. But you’re right that the New Feature Requests process could benefit from even more user input, and we’re working to make changes in this regard.

Let me see if I can address some other user suggestions:

For nan’s suggestion to make the categories more specific, that request is in our system and our metadata team will consider.

For Brad Czerniak and others’ suggestions about loan period/ early return, our agreements with publishers determine the number and frequency of checkouts per patron, so it’s not likely that libraries will be able to offer unlimited checkouts/returns anytime soon.

For David’s suggestion about the ability to click a jacket image to download an eBook, that’s precisely the thinking behind OverDrive Read, our browser-based eReading solution coming later this year (http://www.overdrive.com/news/OverDrive-Introduces-Browser-based-eBook-Reader-). For traditional eBook downloads, the click-jacket-to-download function is among the features the dev team will consider when redesigning the DLR interface.

For tlucarelli’s request about the approaching-max-early-returns notification, I’ll pass that one on to the dev team.

As for Christy’s comment about the WMA compatibility issue, the streaming audiobook option coming later this year will allow users to access many audiobook titles that are currently unavailable due to DRM/device compatibility (http://overdrive.com/News/OverDrive-to-Provide-Streaming-Audiobooks-to-Libraries-and-Schools).

To address threegoodrats’ comments about the support process, keep in mind that if libraries would rather not act as the intermediary between patrons and OverDrive support, we do offer Frontline support service on a subscription basis, by which patrons can directly connect with OverDrive support.

I’ll forward EAChase’s suggestion about the holds/checkout functionality on to our dev team.

Scott Thomson’s suggestion about expanding search specificity is under consideration for our DLR redesign. It is currently possible to view more than 10 search results, though the placement of that option may vary by library.

I’m sure there are some suggestions I’ve overlooked, but I think this covers the majority. Streamlining the user interface/experience is the primary goal underlying our Next Generation initiative. To find out more about OverDrive Read, streaming audiobooks, OverDrive APIs, the all-new Content Reserve and more, check out this press release:

http://overdrive.com/News/OverDrives-Next-Generation-eBook-Service-to-Extend-Value-of-Digital-Libraries

Thanks to everyone for the input. We’re working hard over here to make these and other improvements to your OverDrive service!

Best,

Mike
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Thanks Mike, for listening and being responsive to libraries.

One complaint I have been making for years is that they measure every possible metric except the number of times someone clicks the search button. There are only 2 places this can be done – submit for author, title, subject and search in the advanced screen. I’d also love to know if they were successful (any results) or not but I’d just take a simple number of searches right now.

In my case, it’s the Young Adult books showing up in the Science Fiction genre search that I’d like to be able to exclude. I feel like there are more Young Adult books than those written for adults — lots of chaff to wade through.

Also, maybe have checkboxes for format so that you can search multiple formats at once. I don’t understand why there are so many different versions of, for example e-pubs. I can use any e-pub, but I don’t appear to be able to select all e-pub types.
It might even make sense to have a search by device:
-Books to read on a Kindle
-Books to read on a Nook or other e-pub compatible e-reader
-etc.

Also, a preferences section or a way to list more than ten titles at a time would be really nice. I hate having to hit next 10 or fifteen times if I have a long list to browse through.

Anyway, the scenario that I’ve seen is someone limit to one format, and then accidentally click the “add to bookbag” for the wrong format, since both are listed (even though they’ve limited by format). Sorry for getting it wrong.

@Mary: I completely agree, and feel bad that I forgot to list that initially – I help people with that all the time, and it’s annoying to use the computer software to return the book early, and also delete it. I’m sure that’s all tied up in the DRM though, which really is the heart of the whole problem. Eventually I think publishers will see how plainly stupid and counter-productive DRM is. Regardless, yes, Overdrive should be able to communicate with the DRM in ADE or Amazon and have a built-in early return in the Overdrive account.