Booksellers
and librarians attending BookExpo America in New York City this week will no
doubt be stopping by the OverDrive booth to take a peek at its new Media
Station kiosk. The device is essentially a touchscreen, mounted on a wall or
standalone base, on which consumers can preview e-books and MP3 audiobooks and
then buy or borrow them on the spot.
As
OverDrive’s press release describes it, the Media Station is intended to
provide an in-store—or in-library—way for people to browse e-book titles in the
same location where they browse print books. OverDrive has one million titles
available, mostly trade, from hundreds of publishers. Consumers can view or
hear the first chapter of any title.
For more
than a decade, OverDrive has offered a solution for online direct sales of
e-books and digital content, but about a year ago, shortly after buying the
Booki.sh cloud e-book platform from Australia’s Inventive Labs, it announced
plans to develop the Media Station kiosk.
At that
time, the Media Station was touted as a device intended for libraries. It was piloted
at a public library near OverDrive’s Cleveland, OH, headquarters. However, it
may have more potential for bookstores that already have e-commerce in place,
as the kiosk can be integrated with the store’s web solution.
