Overdrive takes the audio book collection and attempts to digitize it for a more updated user base, trying to allow the portable music player enthusiasts a chance to take advantage of all the library has to offer. In my experience it's a very cool system that fails to capture and hold my attention because of a few drawbacks.
Firstly, the thing isn't very friendly. It's not intuitive and there is way too much running around in order to get started. Install this, read that, login here, transfer this, do that. It's a wild goose chase that eventually leads to getting what you came for, eventually. I know it can't be as simple as something like iTunes, where all you do it click to download, sync and listen, but the user interface definitely needs to be tweaked (or completely redone) in my opinion.
Another part of the Overdrive offering is the selection. While there are some cool things on there (I like to read up about music, musicians, guitar theory and stuff like that) the isn't as much as simply going to the library and browsing the physical selection. There is a few strengths here also, the video portion has some really cool downloadable instructional videos that aren't available in the library, I've watched several and even turned a few on just to listen to the music that they offer. So while I think the selection of offered material is a bit hit or miss, I understand that there are a lot of limitations still being worked out in terms of legally distributing copyrighted works digitally. This is something that the entire world is dealing with, and until some reasonable laws are passed that makes the majority of the people happy I think it won't change too much.
Along with the selection, I find that I don't look for the same things as I do if I were browsing a physical collection. I find much more random authors, or things that I simply wouldn't give a second look if it wasn't online. There are of course the classics, which should satisfy a large number of people out there. Personally, entire subjects seem to either be there or not, making it pretty cut and dry if you can find what you want or not.
When I first started using Overdrive the video collection surprised me. I found them to be very good and I began watching lots of them. With that being said, there hasn't been much added to my favorite subject areas since I started using the system. This has created a slightly stale feeling which I assume is representative of the lesser updated areas of Overdrive.
Overall I think it's obviously in early stages. Overdrive is still trying to figure things out and find ways to make the most amount of people happy. I'm waiting for iPod support, which I read about coming soon. It only makes sense to support the most popular music players in the world. Microsoft has it's hand in Overdrive, so playing nice could take a while, but I think it will eventually happen.
With a few more enhancements I think Overdrive could become a regular resource for me, but at this point I tend to use it very sporadically and more for entertainment than for serious research.
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