This document describes how OPDS User Clients should interpret OPDS published by a Library SImpified SImplified Circulation managerManager.

There are two types of clients that are designed to work with the Circulation Manager

• e-Reader clients (SimplyE Android and iOS) are designed to help users
  
  • find libraries that run circulation managers via the library registry
  • discover content at specific library via a circulation manager OPDS catalog
  • access and interact with content e,g read EPUBs or PDFs, or listen to AudiobooksAudio-books)
  • re-access content they have accessed through a library and save their reading locations
• Catalog Clients are client (Patron Circulation Web) is designed to help users
  • discover content at specific library via a circulation manager
  • re-access content they have accessed or downloaded already,
  • save the fact they have "borrowed" a piece of content via the web from a circ manager Circulation Manager so it can also be accessed by a SimplyE Mobile client

Note: How Clients should interpret OPDS published by a Circulation Manager

E-Reader Clients will SHOULD evaluate the acquisition links link media type to understand if it can support (render or play) the type of file in an OPDS feed

Also it evaluates E-Reader and Catalog Clients SHOULD evaluate the order of the links in the OPDS feed to understand if it understands the fulfillment type AND preference or library process (indrect or direct) AND library preference / requirements for accessing content from a circulation manager regardless of the content copyright.  e.g if a patron authentication is configured in the circulation manager and there is OA content or public domain content configured collections, the user will be required to log in to access.  If no patron authentication is configured, then the clients will allow access without authentication.

SimplyE Client Interpretation of Circulation Manager published feeds

This document is meant to provide an explanation of the different media types that may be published by the Circulation Manager for representation to a user via an OPDS Client.  Specifically it addresses what media types are used and if the SimplyE Mobile App Clients and Patron Web Catalog Client supports the media type.  This document can also be used by content providers who may publish an OPDS feed so that its content may be used by SimplyE.  It can also be used by project participants so as to better understand media type support and its use in the project.

Cover Art or other images such as logos

Image Media Types 

These media types are in the order we would prefer to use them.  e.g. all else being equal, we would prefer a PNG to a JPEG.

• image/png
• image/jpeg
• image/gif
• image/svg+xml

Ebook Content

All ebooks are served in a specific content format such as EPUB. A patron can only read an ebook in a given format if they’re using a client that can process and render that format.

An ebook may be encrypted through a DRM scheme, or access to it may be made difficult by an access control mechanism. If this is the case, the client will also need to be able to process the data format associated with the DRM scheme or access control mechanism.

A simple example is the application/vnd.adobe.adept+xml media type associated with Adobe’s ACS DRM system. A client that asks a circulation manager for an EPUB (application/epub+zip) may get an XML document (application/vnd.adobe.adept+xml) instead. A client that does not know what to do with the XML document will not be able to download or decrypt the encrypted EPUB.

Sometimes a vendor-specific DRM scheme is also used to describe a vendor-specific content format, as with the ebooks delivered through Baker & Taylor’s AxisNow system or Overdrive’s Libby system.

Table of Support for Ebooks

Audiobook content

For audiobook content, it’s very common for the DRM scheme and content type to be represented by a single media type. An example is application/vnd.librarysimplified.findaway.license+json, which describes the audiobooks served through Findaway’s Audioengine product--used by both Bibliotheca and Baker & Taylor. No media type is necessary for the content: if you can negotiate the DRM system then you also know how to play the audio files.

Media types recognized by the circulation manager but not served to clients

If a vendor indicates that content is available in one of these media types, the circulation manager will take note of that fact, but will not offer the content to clients in any of these formats. In some cases, such as courseware and video, this is because none of the existing clients support this type of content at all.