Hello my fellow users of the HCPL Digital Media Catalog!  I am happy to inform you that we had a nice addition to the digital catalog last night!  There were over 400 eBooks added, over 100 eAudio added and a few videos as well as one or two music titles.

Because there is a limit of 200 titles in the new eBooks area, not all titles will appear there.  Here is how to easily find all the titles that were added on January 26^th, 2012.  This is really only important for our eBook users.  The new eAudio titles will all show in the "new eAudo" section on the homepage.

 Hopefully you have been enjoying the semi-weekly updates to the Digital Media Catalog eBooks section.

 I have been able to create eBook orders on a weekly basis as opposed to the monthly basis as is normal.  Three of the four I have ordered are actually live on the site.  The fourth one was unexpectedly delayed after I ordered it but I am hopeful it should be live soon. 

There were not enough good titles added to our vendor's catalog to order last week so I am combining last week’s picks with this week’s to order another list of titles.  Because of donations from some of our branch’s friends of the library groups, this trend of ordering eBooks on a weekly basis should continue through at least January.

I thought I would try something new this week and post the top 10 circulating eBooks and eAudio titles for October 2011.

Do you see any surprises on the list?

eBooks

1. Smokin' Seventeen - by Janet Evanovich

2. The Guy Next Door -  by Lori Foster, Susan Donovan, Victoria Dahl

3. In Too Deep - by Jayne Ann Krentz

To those who updated their Apple products to iOS 5, on 11-3-2011, Overdrive released an update to the Overdrive Media Console that fixes the issue.  Please download and install the new version of the Overdrive Media Catalog, and check for updates for iTunes.

I have tested it and the eAudio title I transferred did not go into the audiobook section like it used to.  A playlist is created for the audiobook.  In the update that released today, the name of the eAudio is now included in the transfer instead of random numbers.  The newest version is 3.2.0.7.

If you are suffering any issues after updating to iOS 5, make sure to update iTunes and Overdrive and hopefully the issue will be solved.  And no more random numbers instead of chapter titles!

I just wanted to update you that new title were added to the Digital Media Catalog late last week.  Below are a few of the titles added.

New eAudio  

To all Apple users.  Please be advised that something must have changed in the way iTunes works with  iOS 5.  After updating to the iOS 5 for Apple products, you will no longer be able to transfer WMA formatted titles to your device from the Overdrive Media Console.

Normally the Overdrive Media Console uses iTunes to convert the file into something it can use.  Something more than likely changed in the iOS 5 update and now the Overdrive Media Console can no longer use iTunes to convert the files.  Our developers are working on the issue and their response about the issue is below.

MP3 formatted titles should still work as normal.  We will update you here as soon as we know this is fixed.

Since title selection is such an important factor in the success of the HCPL Digital Media Catalog, I thought it would be good to talk about the factors I use in determining whether or not to purchase a title.

Each Monday I look at every title that was added to our vendor for digital titles catalog within the previous 7 days.  Most of the time there are thousands of new titles to look through.  I then pick out the ones I am interested in and add them to my monthly orders. 

If there are any title suggestions I have not looked at, I look through them as well.  When it is time to place the order, I go through my cart and start taking out titles in order to get the final cart to within the budgeted amount I can spend that month.

Kindle is here!  As of this morning, you can now checkout and download 5400 of our eBooks to the Kindle!

Not only have the newest August titles arrived in the digital catalog, but the list of popular previously released eBooks have also appeared in the catalog!  A total of 321 new titles were added within the last 14 days!

New eAudio

First let me apologize for the delay in getting the previously mentioned eBooks into the system.   There was an unforeseen delay that was out of our control.  It should be completed soon.  The new August titles may meet the same unforeseen delay.

I was recently at our vendor's convention for eBooks and they mentioned a few features they are working on.  They may be up by the end of the year, but their main focus is in getting the Kindle up and running.  They would not state the date that the Kindle will be able to use our service, but they did stress that it will be VERY SOON.