Overdrive has announced that at the beginning of 2015 they will be implementing a new MP3 audiobook system that will be able to play them in any HTML5 compatible browser. This is tremendously useful for patrons borrowing audio content from the library, because they no longer have to download the audio file or a dedicated app, everything is simply done in the browser.
All major internet browsers for desktop computers, tablets or smartphones all have the ability to render HTML5 content. You don’t need any extra plugins in order to get it to work.
The new audiobook system will be apart of Overdrive Read, which is their HTML5 browser based solution. Currently the system can only read e-Books in EPUB2 or EPUB3 with fixed layouts. It also has support for offline reading, but it is unclear whether you will be able to listen to audiobooks offline, or if needs a constant internet connection for streaming. It is also important to note for existing libraries that your collection of WMV audiobooks are incompatible, it is only going to be available for MP3 files.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
