Sabah State Library - Borrowing eBooks

I gave up my Sabah State Library membership many, many, many years ago. But, reading in yesterday's newspapers, I saw an article about another "FIRST" in Sabah. The Sabah State Library (SSL) was the first in Malaysia to have an eBook service.

This system allows the borrower to borrow the book (ie download an electronic copy) online without physically visiting the library.

I immediately went to the State Library to join the eBook service. I thought the State Library was at the Beautiful Building situated next to the Agriculture Ministry and near The Gaya Teacher Training College. Very nice architecture and huge parking lots.

The interior was nice too. Unfortunately, I was told this was the Library HQ and held only reference material.



I took up the membership at RM10 (for 2 years - cheap!). I was told it can be used at the Kota Kinabalu Library and also at the Penampang Library. You could also register for free wi-fi usage at the library premises (using your personal laptop).

I asked about the eBook service, but no info was given. I thought I could get more at the KK Library.

This was the KK Library, next to the KK City Hall. I enquired about the eBook service but only received blank looks and vague comments. I specifically asked if any other steps or any forms that had to be done to use the service. No help, so I went home to try it online.

The official website pointed me to the Overdrive Sign In page (Overdrive provided the Digital Library Systems). The sign-in page asked for Library Card Number and PIN (as usual). The "Info for Beginners" page explained that the Library Card Number was your IC number and the PIN was ssl2010.

WHAT KIND OF CRAP SECURITY WAS THIS!

The Beginners' Info page also said that the service had to be activated at the branch. I was upset that the KK Branch did not know this. I called the guy in charge of the Branch. He said that they had NOT BEEN TRAINED YET on this eBook service. OMG! why announce the service when your staff had not been trained? Anyway, I asked for the name of the staff at HQ I could contact for assistance. No one answered the phone at HQ (4.35pm).

This morning I tried and was kindly assisted by a staff at HQ, who activated the service for me.

Upon activation, you get to browse through the available books. You are allowed a maximum of 4 books at any one time. The borrowed books can be downloaded to your PC and read (or listened to in the case of an audio book) for specified borrowing period. "My Bookshelf" page showed that I had borrowed 2 books (1 an audio book) which could be downloaded and read (or listened to) until the expiry dates.

The eBooks were in a number of formats (PDF and ePUB). You will need to install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) as the reader (see screen capture above). You will discover that ADE meant that the "protected" books could only be read on your PC and certain eBook readers (eg SONY eReader). No ADE versions for iPhone or Android phones (so no reading on mobile devices).

For audio books, you will need to install Overdrive Media Console. This software was available for PC, iPhone and Android. So most of the audio books are available for mobile devices.

To conclude, this adventure in eBook borrowing from a library was not very user friendly in all aspects.

Although I was very grateful, I felt that activating the eBook service on my account over the phone was not really security-conscious of the library. The seeming lack of security in the account login was also a concern. If anyone from the SSL reads this; please take these comments constructively.

I do intend to be a user of this eBook service as it should become very convenient for both the user and the library. Because of the convenience, I would only borrow 1 book at a time.