Michael Stevens’ blog pointed me to this report from the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center in which the author, Thomas A. Peters, states:
“The fact that netLibrary’s digital audio books are in the protected WMA file format, coupled with the fact that Apple iPods and most accessible devices (for example, the Book Port and the Book Courier) will not play the WMA file format, is unfortunate. One can only hope that soon both Apple and the manufacturers of accessible playback devices realize that supporting the playback of WMA content is in everyoneÂs best interest. “
Come on. This is never going to happen. You might as well try to convince Windows Media Player to play Apple’s DRM-encrusted, proprietary AAC format. Here’s a suggestion that might actually get some results. Get the vendors, netLibrary in this case, to offer downloads in both WMA and AAC. Give the users choice. Then everyone’s happy.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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