Content Reserve is a digital e-warehouse operated by OverDrive, Inc. It holds more than 150,000

eBook An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

, music, and video titles. Content Reserve serves as a digital repository for publishers to distribute downloadable media through OverDrive's

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

and

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

channels. It is also the collection development portal for libraries using OverDrive Digital Library Reserve. As of April 2008, more than 7,500 libraries and retailers and 500 publishers utilize Content Reserve. Content Reserve provides hosting, storage, management, and protection services for digital content in WMA,

WMV Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technolog ...

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

EPUB EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes stylized as ''ePUB''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smart ...

, PRC, and LIT formats. Audio and video content fulfilled from Content Reserve through an OverDrive channel is played in the proprietary

OverDrive Media Console OverDrive Media Console was a proprietary, freeware application developed by OverDrive, Inc. for use with its digital distribution services for libraries, schools, and retailers. The application enables users to access audiobooks, eBooks, peri ...

software, while the various eBook formats can be read in their respective readers (

Adobe Reader Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and web services developed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print and manage Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The family comprises Acrobat Reader (formerly Reader), Acrobat (former ...

Adobe Digital Editions Adobe Digital Editions (abbreviated ADE) is an e-book reader software program from Adobe. It is used for acquiring, managing, and reading e-books, digital newspapers, and other digital publications. The software supports EPUB and PDF (nonproprie ...

Mobipocket Mobipocket SA was a French company incorporated in March 2000 that created the .mobi e-book file format and produced the Mobipocket Reader software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and desktop operating systems. The Mobipock ...

Reader, and

Microsoft Reader Microsoft Reader is a discontinued Microsoft application for reading e-books, first released in August 2000, that used its own .LIT format. It was available for Windows computers and Pocket PC PDAs. The name was also used later for an unrelated ...

). In the summer of 2008, OverDrive began offering management and fulfillment services for audio content in the MP3 format.

Publishing market

Content Reserve provides

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militair ...

-protection and download

, music, and video distribution services through OverDrive's channels. Through Content Reserve, publishers can upload content, set user permissions, establish pricing, monitor sales activity, and edit content marketing metadata. Publishers only need to add each piece of content one time, and can then distribute this content to members OverDrive's network of libraries, schools, and retailers. Some publishers with content available in Content Reserve are

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

Harlequin Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...

Hachette Book Group Hachette Book Group, Inc. (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagard� ...

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Audio Books America, and

Brilliance Audio Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

Library market

Content Reserve is the collection development portal for libraries using the download service Digital Library Reserve. Public library collection managers can review title metadata such as jacket covers and descriptions, and order audiobooks, eBooks, music, and video for their digital collection. Purchased titles are automatically added to their library's online collection. Content Reserve also features collection development tools such as a Download Standing Order Plan, which works like a print book standing order plan, and a Holds Manager, which automatically adds titles to a library's collection when a waitlist reaches the library-supplied holds ratio., Using Content Reserve, librarians can also upload digital materials for which they own the copyright or have permission from the content owner (for instance, a book written by a local author) to make them available for circulation at their patron-facing Digital Library Reserve website. Some major libraries utilizing OverDrive's services include

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

, Singapore National Library, and

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2023 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making i ...

Online retail market

Content Reserve supplies online stores with digital audiobook and eBook content. Retailers select which eBooks and audiobooks are included in their inventory and then distribute them via their current online store or one developed using OverDrive's MIDAS service. Content Reserve retailers receive alerts about new titles and new publishers offering their eBooks and audiobooks. Major retailers utilizing Content Reserve include

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

, eFollett.com,

, and

WH Smith WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service st ...

References

{{reflist American digital libraries

Publishing market

Library market

Online retail market

See also

References