Many thanks to everyone who replied to my request for information on e-books and audio downloads. Here is the promised summary (well - more of a list really) of responses with names and personal details removed:
My local public library service (Surrey) provides e-books - sorry, don't have contact names but the link is here:
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/eBooks+and+eAudiobooks?opendocument
There is e-book jiscmail list which may be of interest (can't recall its exact address but you can find it on the jiscmail website.
The MLA also has some useful case studies and a FAQ on e-books, which are really useful
http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/programmes/digital/e-books
http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice/Innovation/Essex_e-books
and Ken Chad has lots of info on ebooks (and other IT related issues) http://lglibtech.wikispaces.com/E-Books
In Wales, as far as I am aware, only a few local authorities have started to offer it but it's something we're looking at.
In England the early leaders are Luton, Essex and some London authorities and several others. There is a list (probs now out of date) in the FAQ doc on the MLA website.
In case you're interested in e-readers there's a good summary of them here: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/49/ article free in pdf format starts on p4
You could try talking with Essex they've been offering e-books etc for a long time now. I think they were one of the first to do so, or maybe even the first.
The download time can be a major issue for both home users and for your service if you are planning on allowing users to download through your Peoples Network computers through a corporate network connected to numerous firewalls! Also, bear in mind formats. NetLibrary at the time we subscribed (don't know if things have changed) only supported MP3 format so iPod lovers missed out. As we discovered, the interest in iPod's rocketed pre iPhone days somewhere in the region of for every 1 MP3 player sold, 4 iPods are sold which was a stat we found out 4 months or so in to the subscription thanks to Jeff Randell on Sky News!!!! My personal advice would be to watch for formats and any digital encryption eg. DRM (Digital Rights Management) and ensure your equipment will play/read files from the actual site, not a test site.
This is something which we are looking at for the future and I have my eye on the technology available today and coming up in the next 12 months. My own view is when BlackBerry launch their own tablet (the PlayBook as they call it), this will be serious competition to the iPad. Like the iPad, it will cost around the same unlike the Kindle and Sony eReader.
We looked at E-Audio (through NetLibrary). We subscribed to NetLibrary for around 2 years. The problem with the site: It took too long for a download. On average it took around 45 minutes to download on an average ADSL Connection. I use VirginMedia at home on a 10Mb connection, downloads took around 30 minutes.
Here in [removed] we are hoping to launch OverDrive in the New Year. We began looking into this over a year ago. In the meantime Howes have also developed a nice range.
A good starting point if you haven't seen it is the MLA FAQ document on e-books: http://www.mla.gov.uk/~/media/Files/pdf/2010/programmes/MLA_e-books_faqs
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