OverDrive’s CEO Steve Potash Outlines Upcoming “Service Enhancements”

In a new blog post, OverDrive’s CEO, Steve Potash, shares some info about upcoming enhancements to the OD service.
Potash notes that the enhancements he’s writing about will come online “during the 2012 holiday season and months following.”
Here’s some of what shared in the blog post:
1.  OverDrive Read (Browser-Based Access to OverDrive Content)
This upcoming feature was first announced about three months ago.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be upgrading your OverDrive-powered website with OverDrive Read samples of most EPUB eBooks in your existing collection, and by the holidays, this new reading option will enable checkout of full titles.

Today’s blog post includes several books that you can sample right now with your web browser. Here’s a direct link to one of them.
2. Coming later this year, one step checkout for public and school library customers that will include a new, “’responsive’ experience which optimizes the sites for any size screen.”
4. Coming later this year, next-gen content reserve.

Selectors will enjoy a faster search engine, multiple active carts with a drag-and-drop feature, and support for all browsers, including iPad and other tablets.

Potash also discusses OverDrive’s, “commitment to open standards and deep integration with OPAC’s and ILS”, the recently launched developers portal, and OverDrive’s “commitment” to their partners.
We’re sad to say report (but not surprised) that the post does NOT mention anything new about their partnership with Amazon.com and the privacy concerns that we and others raised a year ago.
Read the Complete Blog OverDrive Post (w/ Examples and Screen Shots)

Filed under: Libraries, News, School Libraries