During the last Readmagine conference there was a dialogue between Johanna Brinton and James English which aimed to present the different views on the relation between the retail chain and the libraries as game players on behalf of their patrons. One of the key issues was identifying the challenges for the next years.
From the perspective of Brinton (Overdrive) the most important challenge is to keep open the channels among libraries and outlets of content and as unbiased as possible.
For English is to keep the privacy of the readers safe and give them full control of their data the next challenge to solve. That’s still a challenge for libraries -despite they always upheld and protected that principle- because they have to use tools and software from companies that may not are equipped for that.
Johanna Brinton is Rakuten OverDrive’s European Business Development Executive working closely with publishers to make their digital content available for distribution to libraries. With over 18 years’ experience in dealing with digital content and publishing, Johanna is immersed in the diverse European publishing scenes and aggregates the largest multilingual catalogue in the world for libraries. Johanna is passionate about books and reads three or four books a week in their original languages. Rakuten OverDrive is the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide. Libby is the highly rated “one-tap reading app” for libraries named one of Google Play’s Best Apps of 2017. We are dedicated to “a world enlightened by reading” by delivering the industry’s largest catalogue of eBooks, audiobooks and other digital media to a growing network of 40,000 libraries and schools in 70 countries. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA. We became a Certified B Corporation in 2017. www.overdrive.com
James is Program Manager Ebooks at the New York Public Library. James came to the New York Public Library in May 2013 and serves as Product Manager – National Platforms. His primary duties were as product manager for SimplyE – an open source e-reading platform and IMLS grant-funded project which aims to simplify the experience of discovering, borrowing and reading an eBook from the library. Today this open source software and related technologies are being rolled out across the country by libraries and library consortia as well non-profit and for profit service providers. As Program Manager EBooks, James oversees that expansion as well as new intiatives aiming to improve acces to ebooks for research as well as digitized (out of print) e-materials. James represents NYPL on the Board of Directors for the Readium Foundation which is an industry nonprofit seeking to bring reference technology standards and interoperability to the broader digital publishing industry. James came to the Library from Atlanta, GA where he served as COO and CEO for two privately owned software technology companies. He holds a BSE from The United States Military Academy, West Point, NY and an MBA from Goizueta Business School, Emory University, GA.
