New Overdrive coming and it is awful

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

No, this thread is about the Overdrive website. My libraries have now switched to the new format. A book that I had on loan was auto-checked out to me. I noticed that one of my book checkouts gave me three options to select for the download file: Kindle, EPUB and Kobo.

Can you please post a link to this eBook at your library? Not the loans link, but the link to look at the book's description. Thanks.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can you please post a link to this eBook at your library? Not the loans link, but the link to look at the book's description. Thanks.

Sorry, I'm not interested in sharing my location. But like I said, the Overdrive global search website as well as the specific library book details page says that the format options are Kindle, EPUB and Overdrive Read. It's only on the drop-down box after you borrow it that I saw the Kobo option. It happened to be right after the library switched to the new website.

The book was the November book club selection. I know your library doesn't have the book for you to test because I think you are listening to it as an audiobook via Hoopla.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Sorry, I'm not interested in sharing my location. But like I said, the Overdrive global search website as well as the specific library book details page says that the format options are Kindle, EPUB and Overdrive Read. It's only on the drop-down box after you borrow it that I saw the Kobo option. It happened to be right after the library switched to the new website.

The book was the November book club selection. I know your library doesn't have the book for you to test because I think you are listening to it as an audiobook via Hoopla.

Well, I'll find a library to put it on hold and see what happens when I get to download it.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Interesting to note that the publisher of this book and the other one I borrowed at the same time without the Kobo option were both from the same publisher, HarperCollins.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Interesting to note that the publisher of this book and the other one I borrowed at the same time without the Kobo option were both from the same publisher, HarperCollins.

I'm 2nd on the wait list. I'm at the end of being second. The library has 11 copies and I'm #22 in line.

[PurpleStar]

Can you even search for a book with this stupid new overdrive? Like type in a title or author and search? Oh nevermind I found it! LOL

[4691mls]

Once again, Overdrive fixed what wasn't broken. Now they make you take more steps for both sorting and searching.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just had a look at your library and I see nothing wrong. I can go to advanced search and select 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, etc. and I do see books published after the one you last borrowed. So searching for new books is working no problem.

It used to be possible to sort a whole category by date with one click, without having to break it down into groups by 7 days, 14 days, etc.

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

Can you even search for a book with this stupid new overdrive? Like type in a title or author and search? Oh nevermind I found it! LOL

There used to be a search box at the top of the page where you could just start typing in, now you have to click on the search button first to open a box to type in.

I think somebody at Overdrive has too much time on his/her hands. They probably make these unnecessary changes on purpose, then lurk on mobileread and laugh at our frustration.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Once again, Overdrive fixed what wasn't broken. Now they make you take more steps for both sorting and searching.



It used to be possible to sort a whole category by date with one click, without having to break it down into groups by 7 days, 14 days, etc.



There used to be a search box at the top of the page where you could just start typing in, now you have to click on the search button first to open a box to type in.

I think somebody at Overdrive has too much time on his/her hands. They probably make these unnecessary changes on purpose, then lurk on mobileread and laugh at our frustration.

They always have to make things more complicated than they need to be. Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke don't fix it!"

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Also what you describe is not the way that library integration works. I don't see the Kobo option on the Overdrive library that is linked. The way it works with the library that is linked is that you actually don't select a book format to download after you checkout a book. You leave it with the option to select. It still shows the usual Kindle or EPUB format options. The minute you select one of those options then it no longer syncs with your KA1. It does not show you a Kobo option.

Interesting. I am going to have to disagree with you about how the library integration works as I just tested with my KA1 and local library. I checked out two books, downloaded them into ADE and then synced my KA1. Both books showed up on my KA1 and I am able to open and read them there. I then synced my H2O and the books showed up there too. Feeling like I was on a roll, I then checked out and downloaded a PDF ebook from the library and synced my KA1. The KA1 synced a epub3/kepub version of the ebook.

I don't get Kindle as a download option here, just epub and (rarely) PDF so can't comment if selecting Kindle would cause my KA1 not to sync the book.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Interesting. I am going to have to disagree with you about how the library integration works as I just tested with my KA1 and local library. I checked out two books, downloaded them into ADE and then synced my KA1. Both books showed up on my KA1 and I am able to open and read them there. I then synced my H2O and the books showed up there too. Feeling like I was on a roll, I then checked out and downloaded a PDF ebook from the library and synced my KA1. The KA1 synced a epub3/kepub version of the ebook.

I don't get Kindle as a download option here, just epub and (rarely) PDF so can't comment if selecting Kindle would cause my KA1 not to sync the book.

That's not how it works for me and others. There are discussions about this process in the Kobo forum Overdrive threads. However I haven't tested since the new website was rolled out so maybe it works different in the new one. That would be great because it was annoying. It's also possible it changed after the latest firmware too. I will have to try it out again.

EDIT: So I just tested again. Thank you! They have definitely changed this sometime recently. I have two Overdrive books on my KA1 and two Overdrive books checked out. One of the Overdrive books has no format selected yet and the other is Kindle. This is great news. Now I can check out a book and read it on both my KA1 and my Kindle!

However it doesn't change the main point of the discussion which is that there is still no Kobo format option just because my KA1 is linked to that Overdrive account.

[John F]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Any chance that your library has the "Advantage" checkmark on some books? If so, that means your specific library in a consortium of libraries has bought copies of its own or contributed more to them and users of that library supposedly get "first dibs" on those books.

http://partners.overdrive.com/servic...nts/advantage/

So, you say your library (consortium?) has 7 copies. Maybe your specific library bought 5 of the 7 copies available to users of that Overdrive site. So even though you're 174th in line, you have specific access to the 5 copies that not all the other users in line have.

It's just a guess - I've never been able to tell when I'm in line if I've been bumped because of an advantage to someone else in line. I have occasionally moved back in line, but it's rare enough I've just assumed I didn't enter the number in my tracking spreadsheet correctly in the first place. It could be for the most part, my libraries are the ones most likely to buy advantage, so I usually have the benefit.

My library is an Advantage member.

I don't see the Advantage icon on books anymore (I am logged in).

I just put a hold on a book. It say: "#5 on 1 copy; Total holds 5. Library copies 1. At most there are three people ahead of you in line."

If I log out, the same book says: "Total Holds 2. Library copies 1. At most there are 2 people ahead of you in line"

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by John F

My library is an Advantage member.

I don't see the Advantage icon on books anymore (I am logged in).

I just put a hold on a book. It say: "#5 on 1 copy; Total holds 5. Library copies 1. At most there are three people ahead of you in line."

If I log out, the same book says: "Total Holds 2. Library copies 1. At most there are 2 people ahead of you in line"

With the old site, sometimes there would be a note like "your library has purchased additional copies of this book" and that hold times might be shorter. I don't see a note like that, or an Advantage icon, on the book I was discussing above, but now it says "#171 on 7 copies" and if I click on the question mark it says "There are (at most) 4 people ahead of you in line." (this is while I am logged in - I haven't check the numbers on this book while logged out)

[Bookworm_Girl]

One of my Overdrive libraries is part of a consortium and is an Advantage member. I don't see the icons anywhere on the new site.

When I am logged in I have a book on hold that says there is 0 of 1 copy available with 333 total holds. I am number 273 with 131 people waiting per copy and 131 people ahead of me.

When I log out it shows 0 of 1 copy available with 18 people waiting per copy. There will be at most 18 people ahead of you.

On an aside I find it interesting that the library has 6 of 7 copies of that same book immediately available for checkout on Axis360. People probably don't realize there are other services you can borrow from. Also I don't like how they remade the Axis360 app and think the reading experience is subpar compared to Overdrive or 3M Cloud Library. As much as people don't like the Overdrive remake, it could be worse.

[dki]

I just went to my main library (Brooklyn) and was very unpleasantly surprised. I KNEW it was coming, but I did not expect it to be this bad. My wishlist now shows as pages and pages of huge cover images, without any useful info at all. Isn't it supposed to be a wish LIST? Why is it pretty pictures without any actual, you know, TEXT. I have to go into the book record to see the sequential series number and synopsis. How is that an improvement? This is a library, so a safe assumption would be the users can READ? They don't make the decision on what they want to READ based on the pretty pictures? If that was the case, I would have gone off to read Gauguin, or Salvatore Dali. Maybe Rembrandt or Goya, if I was in the mood for classics, or weird classics.

Manually counting the books in your loans and hold list, and then making a note of it so you know how many books you can still borrow is another "improvement" I truly don't need. Who was hurt by this info being available in the top left corner of your loans view and wish list (LIST) view? Who was hurt by a little pop-up that told you how many books you've borrowed every time you added a new book to the loans? And it also gave you the option to click and go your loans, a nice bonus. So now while assuming I will make a decision on what to read based on a cover image, the library also wants to improve my math skills? Obviously the ability to read become a secondary to the ability to count if you are a new overdrive customer.

I also tried to sort the new books to include only fiction, English and ebooks, all in one shoot, for the newly added books. Without even touching on the subject of whether or not the sorting by the date added works (I don't think so, I wish there was an actual info on the date the book was added to the library), this now forces me to select the format. I cannot just exclude the audiobooks. Now it's either epub, free epub, kindle or pdf. How about I DON'T CARE!!!! My reader runs android and I can read any format. It's the content that is of interest. Unfortunately the content went the way of the dinosaurs - became extinct. It's all about the form - pretty HUGE pictures and all. That need for just ONE format is doubly strange, considering that this change seems to be geared towards the people who use the (relatively) small-screen android devices to access the website, rather than people like me, who access the library website and borrow books on their windows laptop or desktop with a decently sized screen, and THEN read on a small screen android devices.

And I found a category I have never seen before - admittedly that might have been me not paying attention to detail when everything worked for me when the "unimproved" layout was still available. What is "mature adult" fiction as opposed to the "general adult" fiction? Fiction about geriatrics? And I did not find a YA fiction. Not that I am a YA, but some of the YA fiction is fit to be read by a mature adult as myself. I don't want to exclude it. I just want all fiction in my search result. ALL of it. I read a variety of fiction, and don't need my searches to be confined to the narrow categories. I just don't want any audiobooks, that's all. We are all different, and the previous layout accommodated that, this one just wants us all to be illiterates who will only look at a certain narrowly categorized book covers to decide if they also want to look at the black squiggles displayed when you go PAST the pretty covers.

But we have to count really well, and remember the numbers! Admittedly, remembering the numbers might be easier when one is not distracted by the contents of the book one is deciding to borrow (or not).

And all of this was paid for with my tax $$! Taxes in NY are not low. And now my $$ went into making the library borderline unusable, instead to buy more books that I could actually enjoy. What next? Just comic books with minimum text? Or just picture books without any written content at all? Libraries for the illiterate! The ones that can count, that is.

[dki]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

As much as people don't like the Overdrive remake, it could be worse.

LOL, yes. They could skip any information about the book, such as author and title, that is still displayed in my iconic wish list view, and make us base our decisions exclusively on the pretty pictures. I am sure that somebody is working on it as we speak (or write, as the case is, which the overdrive will try to eliminate as much as possible. Who needs the black squiggles when they can have pretty pictures??)