Library dropped Overdrive for 3M. You could be next!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I am positively livid today. I just discovered that my library has unexpectedly and without warning or public input dropped Overdrive in favor of 3M! Ugh!

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone use 3M that can offer any postive input to make me less depressed? Is there any reason to like 3M over Overdrive?

My library was one of the early adopters of ebooks. I had access to over 70,000 ebooks and one of the largest Overdrive libraries in the US. The library had the audacity to put out a public statement that says they thought very hard about their decision to drop Overdrive. They believe that 3M offers more choices and less wait times. They are very excited about their collection of 3500 books.

Seriously! We went from 70,000 books to 3,500 books. Bye bye Kindle or Sony/Nook borrowing and now you have to read via a tablet app. I can't find anything to borrow because the selection is so poor that anything decent has waits now. All of this is better how?

Did I mention how angry I am?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

now you have to read via a tablet app.

No, you can download it to you PC and send it to your ereader (standard Adobe DRM).

[Bookworm_Girl]

The FAQ says only available via Cloud apps. How do you download to your computer? What software do you use? A 3M desktop app?

[Terisa de morgan]

I use a 3M desktop app which download the books to the same directory where ADE stores its books and you can open with it.

Here you can find it.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I use a 3M desktop app which download the books to the same directory where ADE stores its books and you can open with it.

Here you can find it.

Still won't work for eink Kindle. Are they trying to justify it by lower cost? Certainly only 3.5k books going to be less expensive?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Awesome! The FAQs on my library website are misleading. Thank you for making me feel a little better! I see there is a Mac equivalent too. No more Kindle books though where I can store the notes within my Amazon account. At least I can still read on an eink device.

Now I have the problem that the selection is awful. I want Overdrive back!

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Awesome! The FAQs on my library website are misleading. Thank you for making me feel a little better! I see there is a Mac equivalent too. No more Kindle books though where I can store the notes within my Amazon account. At least I can still read on an eink device.

Now I have the problem that the selection is awful. I want Overdrive back!

Sorry to hear that - my library still has Overdrive. (44k fiction, 18k nonfiction)

Haven't been using it a lot though - I get most books in KU. Trying out scribd until free trial expires (not looking good for it to keep it even with audio books now). By the time I kick scribd my Overdrive will probably go boom too - that is how my luck goes.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I am positively livid today. I just discovered that my library has unexpectedly and without warning or public input dropped Overdrive in favor of 3M! Ugh!

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone use 3M that can offer any postive input to make me less depressed? Is there any reason to like 3M over Overdrive?

My library was one of the early adopters of ebooks. I had access to over 70,000 ebooks and one of the largest Overdrive libraries in the US. The library had the audacity to put out a public statement that says they thought very hard about their decision to drop Overdrive. They believe that 3M offers more choices and less wait times. They are very excited about their collection of 3500 books.

Seriously! We went from 70,000 books to 3,500 books. Bye bye Kindle or Sony/Nook borrowing and now you have to read via a tablet app. I can't find anything to borrow because the selection is so poor that anything decent has waits now. All of this is better how?

Did I mention how angry I am?

Wow! I'm really sorry this happened. This sounds like a budget issue. If my library did that, they'd hear from me. I'd want to know how much OverDrive was costing them and how much much they planned to spend on 3M. Then I'd want to know what other steps they took to reduce spending.

So far, only one of my libraries uses 3M; but it still uses OverDrive.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Still won't work for eink Kindle. Are they trying to justify it by lower cost? Certainly only 3.5k books going to be less expensive?

I'm sure cost is a factor. However I live in a huge city. Their form letter says they think 3M is better because it gives them more control over their catalog to offer better trending books and newer releases with less wait-times. I'm sure the collection is small because it is brand new, but it will take a long time to grow to what it was and I doubt it will ever have the variety that it had before.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I am positively livid today. I just discovered that my library has unexpectedly and without warning or public input dropped Overdrive in favor of 3M! Ugh!

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone use 3M that can offer any postive input to make me less depressed? Is there any reason to like 3M over Overdrive?

My library was one of the early adopters of ebooks. I had access to over 70,000 ebooks and one of the largest Overdrive libraries in the US. The library had the audacity to put out a public statement that says they thought very hard about their decision to drop Overdrive. They believe that 3M offers more choices and less wait times. They are very excited about their collection of 3500 books.

Seriously! We went from 70,000 books to 3,500 books. Bye bye Kindle or Sony/Nook borrowing and now you have to read via a tablet app. I can't find anything to borrow because the selection is so poor that anything decent has waits now. All of this is better how?

Did I mention how angry I am?

I wonder how 3M could have less wait times unless fewer people are using it.

[Bookworm_Girl]

The Overdrive library was a consortium for the greater metropolitan area. Although each member could purchase additional quantities of books such that your individual library catalog could have different quantities than the consortium. Now my suburb has decided to go out on their own so instead of millions who could access the system it is hundreds of thousands. Hard to say what that means to wait times without knowing how many people use either system.

[Bookworm_Girl]

The 3M app seriously sucks. Like one of the worst apps I've ever seen for books! And people think the Overdrive app is bad. You could never find your way through tens of thousands of books anyway.

Does anyone use this app? There is no way to save a wishlist? Only star favorite genres? Am I missing something?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

The 3M app seriously sucks. Like one of the worst apps I've ever seen for books! And people think the Overdrive app is bad. You could never find your way through tens of thousands of books anyway.

Does anyone use this app? There is no way to save a wishlist? Only star favorite genres? Am I missing something?

After one of my libraries added 3M, I briefly played with it. It was a nightmare for what few books it offered. So I uninstalled the app.

I have to have Kindle support. If I lose it, I'll switch completely to audiobooks.

[Hampshire Nanny]

My tiny rural library first signed up for Freading -- and just joined a consortium to be able to offer Overdrive. When the librarian told me that they were going to offer Overdrive, I was thrilled since most books at Overdrive are available for the Kindle. BUT, I asked her not to drop Freading. One of the big publishers being offered through Freading is Open Road Media. So, while the books from Freading don't come in a Kindle version (though they offer an android app that can run on a Kindle Fire), they do have a tremendous catalog of back-list titles. I was not having any trouble finding something to read from Freading. (I will point out that most, if not all, of the Open Road Media titles are also available from Kindle Unlimited, but that's not free like the library books are.)

[Bookworm_Girl]

We had Axis360 and Freading. It appears all that is gone now. Before I was kind of complacent. I've lived my whole live in major cities, except university which was still a town of 70,000 people, where we have the benefit of lots of choices. I totally sympathize with rural communities now.