Sabah State Library - Digital Book Borrowing

I did a posting on 11 Nov 2010 on joining the Sabah State Library after they had publicised the availability of eBooks borrowing.

As mentioned there, I was disappointed that the PDF and ePub editions were only readable on the PC (using the Adobe Digital Editions reader) and on certain eBook readers (eg Sony eReader). Thus I could not download the eBooks to my Android phone as there was no android software that could handle the Adobe DRM.

In January 2011, Aldiko released Version 2.0 of the Aldiko Reader (free and premium editions - only for Android 2.1 and above), which could both handle PDF files and also Adobe DRM ePub & PDF books from public libraries. I quickly updated my Aldiko Reader to the new version from the Android Market.

Note that you need to enter your Adobe ID into the Aldiko reader. Also ensure you are on a wi-fi network or a cheap data plan, otherwise the phone bill maybe more than the cost of buying the book from the bookstore!

Now off to the Sabah State Library (SSL) ...

... there were some 900+ ebooks available to browse through. It was not that many (say half appealed to the opposite sex, some were for teenagers and others). Hopefully the library will increase their purchase of eBooks; more likely with increasing number of users ...

I selected Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubini; and clicked [Add to My Cart] ...

... then clicked [Proceed to Checkout] ...

... which then allowed me to download the eBook (actually only the ACSM file - Adobe Content Server Message file; ie the Key) ...

... I needed a file manager that knew what to do with acsm files (I used ASTRO File Manager) ...

... which started the download of the eBook from SSL ...

... and knew to store it in the Aldiko Reader's Book shelf ...

... to be opened for immediate reading ...

... available for 14 days (the eBook will then expire and will not open in the reader). You can also"return" the eBook if you finished reading it before the expiry date.

It was all very convenient. As I mentioned in the November posting, I would only "borrow" one book at a time; keeping those eBooks I was interested in, in my Wish List (I am not sure how long they stay there).

Those of you with Android phones should take advantage of the eBook Borrowing from our SSL.