Naxos Music App – Tech Tips

One of the Library’s most popular electronic resources is our subscription to the Naxos Music Library database. This fantastic music resource contains nearly 70,000 albums and nearly 1,000,000 tracks that can be streamed to your computer for free, 24/7. But did you know that there is also a Naxos Music Library app for your smartphone that allows you to create playlists and stream music anywhere, anytime?

If you have an iPad/iPhone or an Android device, you can download and install the NML app, and then use the Library’s subscription to create a personal login and build your own NML playlists!  (The apps are easy to find in your device app store: just search for the word “Naxos,” and it should be the first thing that pops up!)

Creating a personal login requires a few steps, and it’s not the most intuitive process, but lucky for us, the folks at Naxos Music have put together a YouTube tutorial showing you all the steps needed to get your personal login all set up. Take a look:

Basically, you need to log in to our library subscription (get there from our Search a Database page) to prove to Naxos that you’re a card-carrying library member; once you’re in there you can set up your personal login for free, which the app will then recognize as valid. Everyone else (i.e., NON-library members) has to pay a personal subscription fee to access the app content. 

One of the most interesting things about Naxos is the wide variety of music available in their database. While they DO specialize in classical and jazz, there is also a fascinating mix of pop and folk music mixed into their catalogue, including the entire Nettwerk label.

To create playlists that you can access in your app, log in to the web version of Naxos (always going in via the library’s page, otherwise you won’t have access to our institutional subscription) and then choose “Playlists” and “login.” You can then browse the catalogue, find tracks that you want to play, and add them to a personal playlist.

A couple of cautions: the Naxos website has a fairly short time-out window, which means you might find you get logged out of your personal account a few times when you’re browsing around looking for music to add. The short logout window is because our subscription only allows a certain number of people to be logged in at the same time, and because it’s a popular site, users do occasionally get “bumped.”  

Please note as well that the app uses streaming music technology to bring you your music, which means of course that it’s using your device’s data plan to deliver the stream. If your monthly data usage is a concern, you should probably only use the app only when hooked up to a Wi-Fi network.

Happy streaming!

-Sophie

Getting the Library’s PDF eBooks on your Android tablet

…and yes, this is just for Android (sorry iPad users, for once, it’s you that’s excluded!)

Tested on the Samsung Galaxy tablet, Kobo Vox and Samsung GalaxyS Phone:

A recent question at one of our public eBooks Show & Tell courses has got us into deep-thoughts and research mode.  Our patron wanted to know: if gadgets like the iPad and Android tabs have beautiful screens which can display pdf documents georgeously, why can’t they be used to download and display Adobe PDF ebooks, which are best for images?

PDFs vs. ePUBs: A PDF eBook is basically a photo image of the printed book (margins, page numbers, images remain in place) whereas an ePUB has resizable text and margins. PDFs are great if the design & layout of the page is important to the reading experience (Children’s picture books that mix image and text on the page are a good example). EPUBs, on the other hand, are better for novel reading, because you can resize the fonts and margins to suit your comfort level (PDFs can be resized, but only by zooming in, which usually then requires you to scroll up and down to see all the text – not too comfortable).

The standard answer is: because they can’t.  The Overdrive eBooks app (available for iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows) is only set up to download two file types: MP3 audio and ePUB ebooks (What’s an ePUB? What’s a PDF? What’s the diff? See sidebar for more).   We’re not sure what the reasoning is behind the limitation (either it was set up that way because the app was initially designed for iPhones and PDFs just aren’t readable (too tiny) on a phone screen, or the file size of the PDFs is larger, or something) but in the end, because the app belongs to the Overdrive corporation, we have no control over the options.

Of course, we’re not satisfied with that answer any more than you are.  After a bit of digging, we’ve found that the LONG answer—at least for Android tab users—is that it totally IS possible.  You just need to get a different app. 

It’s not that we don’t recommend using the Overdrive app (we use it and love it!).  And if you use an iPad, we can’t help you, because we still haven’t found anything that will allow you to load or transfer our DRM-protected PDF files to an iPad(although we’re happy to hear if you’ve found one!).  But if you’re an Android (phone or tablet) user, we’ve found that the FREE Aldiko Book Reader app is an alternative that works just like the Overdrive app (meaning that it communicates with the eLibraries catalogue and lets you download direct to your device), except that it ALSO allows PDF downloads.  If you’re willing to put in the time to get it set up and aren’t worried about troubleshooting things yourself, it’s worth a try!

Instructions for getting Aldiko set up on your Android Tablet:

1. Download and install the Aldiko app using the Android Market (FYI: on the Kobo Vox, you need to side-load the app because it’s not listed in the Kobo market. Luckily, you can download and install it from http://slideme.org/application/aldiko).   
2. Once you’ve got the app installed, open Aldiko and set it up with an Adobe ID (create one for free at adobe.com if you haven’t got one already).  To get to the Adobe ID screen, go to settings > Adobe DRM > add your info. 
3. Next, click on the little “home” icon to open the main page, open “My Catalogs”, click the “+” symbol and add eLM with the exact URL http://elm.lib.overdrive.com/10/482/en/default.htm (it has to be that exact URL or else you’ll be directed to the mobile version of the site and won’t be able to search for or download PDF files).
4. Click on the link that you’ve just created; eLibraries should open. Search for something fun to download (if you’ve got a title in mind, go find it; if you just want to test it, open the advanced search page, choose Adobe PDF in the format box and then limit to available titles, search and browse the results). 
5. When you’ve found something to download, add it to your cart, login with your card to proceed to checkout, then choose your lending period and confirm the checkout.  Next, click download to start the file transfer.  The file should automatically start to load into Aldiko.
6. When it’s finished loading, open and enjoy!

Note:  This method only works if you’ve got eLibraries MB set up as one of your Aldiko “catalogues.”  If it’s not set up, the eLibraries site will try to open the book in the Overdrive app instead, and you’ll get an error message saying that the device doesn’t support PDF downloads. 

When the library book expires, you should be able to go back to the library catalogue, check it out again (assuming there aren’t holds) and download it again to keep reading, just like in the Overdrive app.

Happy eReading!

-Sophie

The ebook revolution is here

Some naysayers signal an upcoming apocalypse because people don’t seem to be reading books anymore… which would be sad, except for the fact that we may be undergoing a revolution towards reading ebooks instead. Unless you were lost on a desert island or tragically caught in a coma, it would be hard to have missed the publicity. Electronic readers such as the Kindle, iPad, Sony Reader, and the Kobo eReader have held the industry spotlight this past year. Time magazine reports that in 2010, at least in the U.S., ebooks outsold hardcovers, and are gaining on the leader, the paperback!

It would be foolish to think it’s any different here in Canada. At the Winnipeg Public Library, ebook and digital audiobook checkouts doubled from 2009 to 2010. Check out the growing list of titles we offer at elm.lib.overdrive.com. (Now optimized for iPad use!)

The future seems to be touch computing, but it’s taken a while. I confess I was nerdy enough to be an early adopter of one of the first ebook readers. Back in ’98 I bought a monochrome, low-resolution Rocket ebook reader and loved it, for a while. There just wasn’t enough selection in ebooks back then. And it was kind of klunky. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to sell it on eBay.

Now with my own iPad, I’m enjoying the resurgence of ebooks — along with a lot of other people. (It’s great to have company.) Although I too enjoy the feel of ‘real’ books, and will continue to read tree-based tomes, ebooks are becoming my favourite medium for reading. Right now I have several on the go (including a great read, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak), but I don’t need to strain my arms carrying all of them when I go somewhere. They’re all tucked away, byte by byte, in a few ”apps” on my iPad. My favourites are the Kindle and Kobo apps for iPad.

Other ebook benefits include: 1) you can change the font and text size at any time to suit your fancy; 2) you can read white text on black with the lights out in bed, so as not to disturb your spouse!; 3) you can add electronic notes in the margins or highlight favourite texts with ease; 4) you can check a built-in dictionary when new words arise; 5) making a bookmark by turning down an e-page seems a lot less harmful than folding a ‘real’ page in a pristine paper book; and, wait for it… 6) ebooks are cheaper, although to me they still seem a tad high given how much easier they are to make.

And did I mention that you can carry a library of books (plus magazines and newspapers), read and unread, easily under your arm in a compact, lightweight device?

It won’t be long before ebooks comprise the majority of book industry sales. For those who haven’t tried an ereader yet, I would recommend you borrow a friend’s or relative’s and give it a spin. You can also test drive a library ebook on your desktop, laptop, or smartphone and get ready for the revolution.

Just make sure you’ve charged the batteries before hitting the couch or walking out the door.

- Lyle