iPods on loan - at last!

It has been a long time between posts, but things have been moving along. In my last post, I mentioned that I had 3 emails floating around in cyberspace to Audible. One of them was answered and it turned out that we (as a public library) are definitely able to purchase and lend out mp3 audio files. Not only this, but we can actually have 3 copies of the book on loan simultaneously, which was not my original intention. it actually still isnt my intention to have more than one copy available - i will wait and see what this pilot turns out like.

There are geographical restrictions - I am not too sure what they are, but when I registered and specified my country as 'Australia', the website automatically allows me access to only what is available for purchase in Australia.

So far all is good. The iPods are being borrowed and I am sure there will be teething problems soon, but so far all is good.......

MP3 audio books in libraries

I have been thinking for ages about the possibility of buying Young Adult audio books as mp3 files and lending them out on iPods. I know that there are ways to have these audio books available for downloading from a library's catalogue, but this can take time and is very costly. So, me being me and not wanting to wait, I thought a quicker way to start this would be to buy the audio books as mp3 files, buy some iPods, then lend out the iPod loaded with the book, pretty much in the same way that public libraries lend out books. I had no plans to lend out a book more than once at a time (after all, with a printed book, only one person can borrow it at once, right?) and thought it would be pretty straightforward for staff and patrons to understand. There would be no need for staff to transfer files, as the iPod would stay preloaded with the same book.

Sounds simple?

well it isn't. I can't get a straight answer from iTunes on whether we can do this. One person told me that he saw no reason why we couldn't and although we were restricted to having the audio book on no more than 5 computers, we could have it on as many devices as we liked. Further enquiries have led to puzzled questions for clarification (obviously lending out an audio book is a foreign concept??), to replies saying that lending out the book for commercial purposes is against the terms of sale. Trying to clarify whether a library lending out an mp3 file on an iPod is commercial still had me going around in circles.

So much for good ideas. sigh.