Introducing OverDrive Periodicals - 04-MAY-2015

Tags: Periodicals, Magazines, Newspapers, Newsstand, NOOK, periodicals-nook, barnes, noble

OverDrive API Partners,

OverDrive has launched a new class of digital content for libraries and schools: magazines and newspapers! Periodicals officially launched on OverDrive library websites 09-FEB-2015 with 13 partners.

Documentation about how periodicals work in the OverDrive APIs is now available on the Developer Portal. This format will be enabled in the APIs and begin to show up for partners who have the format enabled on 04-MAY-2015. You may already be seeing this new and exciting content show up in MARC records, the OverDrive Search API responses, and Metadata API responses for libraries and schools, but the format will not be available for fulfillment until it’s turned on in May.

Here’s a brief guide for getting started with periodicals in the OverDrive APIs:

Periodicals are fulfilled, downloaded, and enjoyed in partnership with Barnes & Noble, through NOOK tablets and/or the free NOOK reading app (available on all major mobile platforms).
Periodicals may show up in Search and Metadata responses but, notably, will not have a format listed. The format will not appear in responses until it is officially enabled in the APIs on 04-MAY-2015.
The format identifier for periodicals is periodicals-nook.
First-time users will be asked to sign up for or sign in with a free NOOK account and grant OverDrive the ability to add magazines and newspapers to their NOOK account. This is a one-time process.
After a user links their NOOK account with their library card (through OverDrive), they can send (the latest issues of) periodicals to their NOOK account in one easy step.*
You can review documentation and watch a help video to learn how OverDrive library websites handle NOOK periodicals.
We’ve updated the API Reference Guide to include the new NOOK format (including the format ID used by the APIs and best practices).
We’ve updated the Download API page to include periodicals and how to request a "download” for them.

*You will need to create new NOOK accounts or use existing NOOK accounts for testing your integration. Developer/test NOOK accounts are not available from Barnes & Noble.

Additionally, we’ve enabled periodicals and added several of them to the OverDrive API Integration Library (ID 4425) for testing purposes.

As a reminder, the format classification in the OverDrive API responses is the preferred and supported mechanism to determine whether or not digital content in any given collection can be delivered to users. Without an indication of the format(s), there’s no guarantee that the content can be made available to a user.

Thanks for your continued partnership.

-The OverDrive API Team