Please!!! Put Calibre on Chromebooks For My Classroom. Please!!!

[msjohnson007]

Re: Needed for the Chromebook

I love Calibre ebook management. I have been utilizing it for years and have an extensive digital library that I simply cannot live without. There is nothing else like it and I rave about it to all my friends and colleagues.

Here's my problem.

As a teacher, I believe that with the ability to build, manage and show off one's own personal library is one of the best parts about being an avid reader.
I also believe that it is essential and critical to the instruction of emergent readers in teaching a love of literature.

I want to incorporate an ebook library system in my classroom. Our school had chromebooks donated to the students, but they are limited in their use as ebook libraries and ereaders. My class and other classes like mine need Calibre on the Chromebooks.

I have showed them how to find DRM free ebooks, they love Project Gutenberg, and many of them have their own ebooks purchased on their own devices that are not allowed for use in class. I have even showed them how to use digital libraries online to "check out" ebooks.

Please make it possible to use Calibre on the chromebook, so that my students can use their growing ebook collections in class and build on each other's love of literature.

[msjohnson007]

Below is a supporting post in another forum about the compatibility issues my classroom faces.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks

...but not as promising as I hoped for. It's similar to the Android app, but without Kindle support; though the Chrome browser supports Kindle. MP3 audiobooks are now covered, which is partially good news. The problem there is that MP3 audiobooks only make up 68~75% of a library's audiobook collection, while WMA covers over 99% of it. Hey, partial support is better than no support.

OverDrive has 8 book formats --> compatible -- not compatible


Windows OS -- Chrome Browser

• Kindle eBook
• OverDrive Read
• EPUB eBook
• Open EPUB eBook
• PDF eBook
• Open PDF eBook
• OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
• OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Android OS -- Android App

• Kindle eBook
• OverDrive Read
• EPUB eBook
• Open EPUB eBook
• PDF eBook
• Open PDF eBook
• OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
• OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Chrome OS -- Chrome Browser

• Kindle eBook
• OverDrive Read
• EPUB eBook
• Open EPUB eBook
• PDF eBook
• Open PDF eBook
• OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
• OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Chrome OS -- Chrome App

• Kindle eBook
• OverDrive Read
• EPUB eBook
• Open EPUB eBook
• PDF eBook
• Open PDF eBook
• OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
• OverDrive WMA Audiobook

.

[msjohnson007]

Here is a quote from the creator of Calibre in response to another Chromebook user in yet another forum requesting accessibility back in 2012.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Eventually the calibre content server will get write support, which means you will be able to use it to manage your calibre library. But it wont be any time soon, as I have lots of other things on my plate as well.

I'm thinking of adding incentive by crowdfunding this project. Please help me raise the funds for my students to have Calibre on their Chromebooks.

[eschwartz]

I think it would be very nice to get calibre server operating as a remote control for calibre. Note that this would require running calibre from a server somewhere.

At least at the moment, many people are doing an end run around ChromeOS's restrictions using crouton or ChrUbuntu, either of which should serve to allow installation of calibre.

Either one does require a certain familiarity with the command-line (at least for installation) and technical knowledge that means it may not be for everyone, though.

[eschwartz]

One thing you can also do, is if there is a computer science class at your school you can rope into taking on calibre as a class project.

[hugoheitz]

Maybe it is possible to see the content of your calibre database with :
COPS ?
MyReadings ?
But I agree that you will at least need to populate the calibre database content, that means you have at least a PC or Mac to do that...

[BearMountainBooks]

While I don't have any issues with Calibre in the classroom, the poll makes no sense. Of course students should have access to literature at all times. But they can access literature in many forms (including old fashioned books), various formats and so on. Calibre is a great product that exists because of volunteers and donations. It makes more sense to ask what you and others can do to help get it there. And if it is a matter of engineering time, well, Kovid is one person and he has already donated and done HUGE amounts of work for the reading and writing community!!! Others have also donated brain power and time. It's a great product, but the problem is changing technology/new products like Chrome, not Calibre...

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by hugoheitz

Maybe it is possible to see the content of your calibre database with :
COPS ?
MyReadings ?
But I agree that you will at least need to populate the calibre database content, that means you have at least a PC or Mac to do that...

You can do the same with the Content Server built into calibre...

And the issue here seems to be adding and managing the library, not simply downloading from an already-built one.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

While I don't have any issues with Calibre in the classroom, the poll makes no sense. Of course students should have access to literature at all times. But they can access literature in many forms (including old fashioned books), various formats and so on. Calibre is a great product that exists because of volunteers and donations. It makes more sense to ask what you and others can do to help get it there. And if it is a matter of engineering time, well, Kovid is one person and he has already donated and done HUGE amounts of work for the reading and writing community!!! Others have also donated brain power and time. It's a great product, but the problem is changing technology/new products like Chrome, not Calibre...

I don't see any particular problem in pointing out that changing products and the growth of cloud-sourced computation leaves room for calibre to grow (in ways that are its long-term goals anyway).

Perhaps if this topic attracts a lot of attention, Kovid may decide now is a good time to start working on it, much like when Sigil was stalled and there was a lot of people who expressed interest in a calibre ebook editor.

I am sure it cannot hurt to try collecting bounty money either. I don't know of any previous bounties offered for calibre, so I don't know if that will spark Kovid's interest, but perhaps something may come of it.

I would agree that the quickest way to ensure it gets there is to find some like-minded people who have the skills and try to contribute the necessary code. Perhaps msjohnson007's school has a computer sciences class, that can be convinced to take on calibre as a class project and implement write support for the content server.

[Terisa de morgan]

My problem isn't with the poll or the desire to change calibre so it can run over other OS. My problem comes with the mix. I don't know any relationship between whether I want a student having access to literature at any time (perhaps a math or chemistry teacher wouldn't agree...) and calibre having to change to support the school's decision about technology.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

My problem isn't with the poll or the desire to change calibre so it can run over other OS. My problem comes with the mix. I don't know any relationship between whether I want a student having access to literature at any time (perhaps a math or chemistry teacher wouldn't agree...) and calibre having to change to support the school's decision about technology.

I wasn't really sure what the deal is with the poll, but as far as the request, I am taking that in a bubble.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

My problem isn't with the poll or the desire to change calibre so it can run over other OS. My problem comes with the mix. I don't know any relationship between whether I want a student having access to literature at any time (perhaps a math or chemistry teacher wouldn't agree...) and calibre having to change to support the school's decision about technology.

THIS. The poll options are not related to Calibre.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't see any particular problem in pointing

I am sure it cannot hurt to try collecting bounty money either. I don't know of any previous bounties offered for calibre, so I don't know if that will spark Kovid's interest, but perhaps something may come of it.

I would agree that the quickest way to ensure it gets there is to find some like-minded people who have the skills and try to contribute the necessary code. Perhaps msjohnson007's school has a computer sciences class, that can be convinced to take on calibre as a class project and implement write support for the content server.

The idea of bounty money is probably a good one. A lot of work goes into Calibre and indications are that donations are always welcome!

[msjohnson007]

I love Calibre as is. I use it on all of my devices to manage and move my personal library. I even used it during my own education to manage my reference materials. I can't imagine my life without it and I would not want to change it for the world. In fact, my asking for a similar version for the Chromebook, and proposing that it's construction be funded by donation, is in no way an intentional threat to the builds that already exist or the creator. I honestly thought that his being paid for this labor of love would be appealing enough to warrant further consideration of Calibre's many uses on multiple platforms. If I have upset you by asking to add to the capabilities of an already awesome system, I apologize for any misconception in my meaning; please do not mistake my purpose in posting. I looked, to no avail, for a way to simply contact Kovid directly to have my request put through, and I sympathize with being busy, which is why I would have found the funding to pay him for his effort.

Why insist on Calibre?
1) If the students had their libraries locally, and could manage them personally, they would not need to sign in on the internet for accessing them as with Overdrive or a cloud space. Calibre can do that.
2) Calibre automatically accesses and implements metadata into the files, but it also allows editing of that data. The students need the ability to know and find this information for annotation and citation.
3) Many ebooks and epubs found on the internet for free or bought online do not come in a universal format compatible to Chromebook that is easy to organize. Calibre can change that, and learning about the process can be a helpful tool in any student's life.
Calibre is the first, and to my knowledge, only program that meets the needs of what I aim to accomplish, and through the years it has continued to surpass my expectations. I am open to Chromebook-compatible suggestions of alternative programs with the same capabilities and ease of use, as my search has come up empty. Use of the internet is guided and regulated in our school, I am required by rule to limit its use to specific lessons and use what is on hand to accomplish a majority of our curriculum goals.

To clarify my position, the students I teach enjoy reading when given the chance to choose their literature. My class reads 40 books per year at a minimum and the students get to choose, within certain parameters, those 40 books. My classroom "hard copy" library is limited by my ability to fund its growth and I do not make enough to keep abreast with the voracious curiosities and varying interests of 35 fifth-graders. I barely make enough to supply art materials, notebooks, and copy paper. Our school library is rapidly dwindling in response to a severe deficit in the goodwill of our society toward the public school system. As it is, the local public libraries are carrying less and less books. It may not be this way at your child's public school yet, but my students are being greatly disserviced.

In response, my students have discovered online resources to solve the problem with virtually free and completely legal access to more literature than the Chromebooks hard drives can hold. I now have many students who use the internet wisely. Under firm guidance in the classroom and with due diligence they have responsibly found literature on the web at home, in their spare time, that their parents have bought for them as ebooks to read on their devices. I want the possibility of my students having access to it in the classroom as I teach them to sharpen their skills in research and proper citation. For those of you who do not know, literature refers to all genres of books, not simply those of fiction.

The first problem is that Chromebooks do not read every etext format, nor do they allow for rating, commenting, metatagging, and other management of the students' personal libraries. I cannot buy them newer more compatible computers, servers, and cloud spaces and the school district can barely afford the upkeep of the facilities. I cannot secure licenses for digital copies of all their favorite books, nor can I buy them compatible software for their Chromebooks, of which there is none. Most students are already required to learn and use technology to a degree much more advanced than I was taught in college, just to take the mandated standardized tests every year.

We have many enrichment activities like Author Studies and Book Talks, where the students share literature with each other and the younger grades, that they are passionate about. In addition to creating visual and concrete representations by hand in groups, they could access the books they are talking about and immediately read specific passages as they present, without carrying many books and papers. These students will often insist on finishing a discussion on their reading rather than go to recess.

I do not have the capability to write code or run servers from my classroom. Most elementary teachers and students do not and, its quite a task simply to monitor the students' online presence and activity. Many of our schools are still very limited in the technology that is allowed in the classroom. While the internet seems limitless, the minds and pockets of public school administration and PTAs are not even close. I have thought of a way to make it much easier. I am already reaching out to the local computer science departments in colleges and high schools for a Calibre-like program to be built and piloted in our district but I am unfamiliar with what such things require. I look forward to not only your continued constructive criticism but also your much savvier suggestions on how to proceed, should I have the capabilities in the near future.

To my also quite limited knowledge, having a Mac-compatible version did not harm the Windows version or stop its updates; though some of your responses seem to indicate that a Chromebook version made specifically for my classroom would somehow alter or disable use in your devices. Please try to keep in mind, that this is not your or my database that I aim to share with 35 children, nor is it your or my devices that I aim to use to do so. This is for a public elementary school's Chromebooks and a class of fifth graders who wish to show off their love of literature and technical prowess to their peers. How better to do that but in a digital library that they would take with them to build as they go, with all my hope that their lives are enriched by the experience? This could be a very important step in the advancement of their scholastic careers and the spark of inspiration in countless others, if approached properly. All I'm asking is for suggestions on how to reach my goal.

-----------------------------------------------------------

As to the validity of my poll, as more than just a very successful attention-getter. I find it hilarious that the poll bothers you so much, but I do not regret including it and you do not have to look at it.
I admit it seems a bit outrageous, or perhaps specious, when read out of context. Of course, all students should have access to literature in all its formats, especially with the protection and guidance of the classroom. So, above was the context in relation to Calibre and my very specific request. If it was not clear let me further the point. The response choices in the poll are actual attitudes expressed by real people, many of whom tell me those are valid reasons why students don't have the right to universal and free access to literature or why it's ok not to fund libraries. I think that is important because I even heard them echoed in a few of your responses.

And, before this becomes an explosively political and truly self-righteous argument about whether you liked a poll or not, rather than simply an appeal for a program to be paid for and piloted for the sake of students everywhere, I want it known that your unnecessary disapproval of my request to integrate a library management program into my classroom is ridiculous at best. Thank you for drawing attention to a cause that should be followed. Feel free to include a donation when the time comes.

As this idea is still in the pre-planning stages, I need more information before making this dream into a reality. Since talking to Kovid directly was not an option, here I am, crowdsourcing ideas on how to make it possible. Until I get the go ahead from the school administration for implementation and the funding for the project to be created, the only posts I will respond to will be for constructive criticism or tech-savvy suggestions.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by msjohnson007

I looked, to no avail, for a way to simply contact Kovid directly to have my request put through, and I sympathize with being busy, which is why I would have found the funding to pay him for his effort.

The best way to contact Kovid is by posting in this forum. He has been less active for the past week or two, and posted that his family dealt with miscellaneous minor health-related stuff: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=252348

But he should be back soon, and will hopefully notice this, and comment how he sees fit.

I agree with the general rise of Cloud Computing, the growth of Chromebooks as personal computers, the issue of focusing on cloud support is one to think seriously about, again.

I do not have the capability to write code or run servers from my classroom. Most elementary teachers and students do not and, its quite a task simply to monitor the students' online presence and activity. Many of our schools are still very limited in the technology that is allowed in the classroom. While the internet seems limitless, the minds and pockets of public school administration and PTAs are not even close. I have thought of a way to make it much easier. I am already reaching out to the local computer science departments in colleges and high schools for a Calibre-like program to be built and piloted in our district but I am unfamiliar with what such things require. I look forward to not only your continued constructive criticism but also your much savvier suggestions on how to proceed, should I have the capabilities in the near future.

Well, all you would need to do is run the content server from one computer, say, your personal computer, and have the kids access the server it sets up. Servers really don't require any special capacity, other than software installed, unless you plan on serving millions (okay, thousands) of people per day. Although setting up a server often requires technical knowledge, in this case calibre does the work automatically.

If you can get a local high school/college class to organize a project for writing ebook software, it might be a good idea to see how amenable they are to the goal of contributing all-new functionality to calibre. Seriously. The best way to guarantee the changes you want in an open-source project (like calibre) is always to bring working code to the developer. The developer may not have time to work on the code much, or may have time but a different focus, but developers are usually happy to merge other peoples' code if it works well. That is how the open source community thrives.

Have you enjoyed plugboards, and custom columns? MobileRead user @chaley saw the need for something like that, wrote it himself, and contributed it. Now it is one of the most useful advanced tools in calibre's arsenal, and many of us could not dream of a world where it didn't exist.

If you can get them interested, they will want to start by taking a look here: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/develop.html
They can also ask for help in the Calibre Development subforum, Kovid is always happy to answer questions about the code, and offer guidance.

Kovid may also decide that it strikes his fancy to start working on this now himself, of course. But he does have many things of interest to work on, so it isn't guaranteed. Either way, it cannot hurt to get your local computer science students interested.