Intro

[freoishome]

I've owned a KOBO Aura for a couple of years, but repeatedly frustrated with its on/off ability to accept Library books from Overdrive and Borrowbox.

The Australian Consumer Association have recently upgraded their review of E-book readers, and the feedback comments opened up the discussion of the problem with Rakumen's (Kobo manufacturer) unhelpfulness of dealing with this library book issue.

One poster recommended trying Calibre, instead of the default Adobe Digital Edition. So here I am.

I'm at a bit of a loss as I am not yet a Calibre user, and the first post I read here, indicated there is a potential issue with the latest release of Calibre and the KOBO auto firmware upgrade, which I received yesterday, as a result of the ACA discussion on their Choice forum. It seems it might be prudent to wait a few days for Calibre to upgrade to cope with this new KOBO firmware?

Would appreciate any feedback.

[DNSB]

What version of calibre are you planning on installing? You will still need to have ADE installed to download the epub associated with the .acsm file sent by Overdrive. I haven't used BorrowBox so no idea of what it does.

BTW, newer Kobo ereaders such as the Forma, Libra H2O and Clara HD will allow you to borrow from Overdrive libraries from your device.

As for the firmware version, calibre 5.8.1 has no issues with Kobo firmware 4.25.15875. For calibre 4.23, you will need to enable the Attempt to support newer firmware option on the Metadata, on device & advanced tab of the KoboTouch or KoboTouchExtended driver configuration.

[freoishome]

Thank you DNSB.

Calbre - thank you for explaining the Calibre versioning. I probably misunderstood the first post/thread I read here.

I'm interpreting your comment re ADE as follows please confirm that for me.

1)I download the acsm file from the public library, using ADE, onto my desktop, in the current directory.
2) instead of using ADE to copy the acsm file to my Kobo device, I then open Calibre, to load and manage my Kobo device.

Borrowbox is owned by Bolinda. Overdrive is owned by Rakuten. They are both libraries of e-books, each holding a different collection. These are used by public libraries to loan e-books to clients, typically for a 3 week period. Not sure but I suspect Rakuten and Bolinda are effectively 'publishers'? Maybe other publishers use them to publish their books in e-book format for Public Library use?

They appear to use the same downloaded file, an Adobe acsm file, to manage that loan, ie, which book, goes to which client, for a specific period.

I don't know if there are alternative to the Adobe acsm file and its structure downloaded from Public Libraries?

I'm really just showing my ignorance of this whole area!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by freoishome

Thank you DNSB.

Calbre - thank you for explaining the Calibre versioning. I probably misunderstood the first post/thread I read here.

I'm interpreting your comment re ADE as follows please confirm that for me.

1)I download the acsm file from the public library, using ADE, onto my desktop, in the current directory.
2) instead of using ADE to copy the acsm file to my Kobo device, I then open Calibre, to load and manage my Kobo device.

ADE doesn't put the ACSM file onto the device. It uses the details in the ACSM file to download a DRM protected copy of the book. When you connect the device, ADE will put that copy of the book on the device. It also authorises the device for your Adobe account so that the books can be read.

Borrowbox is owned by Bolinda. Overdrive is owned by Rakuten. They are both libraries of e-books, each holding a different collection. These are used by public libraries to loan e-books to clients, typically for a 3 week period. Not sure but I suspect Rakuten and Bolinda are effectively 'publishers'? Maybe other publishers use them to publish their books in e-book format for Public Library use?

"Publisher" is definitely not the correct word for Rakuten and Bolinda. They provide a service that manages the loans and downloads of the books. They are closer to a warehouse and delivery service (which I think is a terrible comparison and I'm happy for someone to correct me on ).

They appear to use the same downloaded file, an Adobe acsm file, to manage that loan, ie, which book, goes to which client, for a specific period.

The ACSM file has details of the book, the user and the time limits on the loan. Once the book is downloaded, the load details are in the book and no contact is needed to the servers. ADE and the ereaders or apps will manage that based on the information supplied. If you download the book, put it on the device, the day after the loan expires, it will not open.

Calibre is very good for managing books. But, it doesn't really work with books that have DRM. The DRM can be removed, and for purchased books, this is recommended by a lot of people. The legality and ethics of doing this is argued about frequently. For library books, it is clearer as it is not your book and DRM removal removes the time limiting factor.

I don't know if there are alternative to the Adobe acsm file and its structure downloaded from Public Libraries?

Kobo has integration with Overdrive libraries on the device. In supported countries, such as Australia, and for libraries that sign up, you can actually borrow books through the store on the device. Or if you borrow them by other methods, they will download directly to the device. But, this is only supported on newer devices. If the "Kobo Aura" you list is the original device, it does not support this. The Kobo Aura Edition 2 should have the support assuming it has a recent firmware version (OD support was originally only on the Aura ONE, but later was added to devices released after the Aura ONE). If your device supports this, there should be an option in the settings for this.

Also, I had a look for the Choice Community discussion on ereaders. I assume that is where you got the idea of the ACSM file. The details that @longinthetooth mentions in that thread are wrong in several ways. The ACSM file is used to download the book, but, after that it is not used. It is not kept by ADE.