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86 libraries in 20 countries world-wide are now live with bilingual interface options on OverDrive's Next Generation Digital Library platform. All of our partners on the new platform can now opt in to give their patrons the ability to change the interface of their library's OverDrive site to French Canadian, Simplified Chinese, and/or Spanish. Each library can enable two languages in addition to the Standard English interface—at no charge. Japanese and Traditional Chinese translations are coming soon, with additional languages on the way.
Library patrons from the US, Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands, Israel, the Dominican Republic and Qatar, among others are reaping the benefits of this new service. According to Adina Szalai, Integrated Library Systems Specialist at the Ottawa Public Library in Ontario, "The complete bilingual interface is a necessity in serving our population. Furthermore, having matching language layouts and understandable translation of e-downloading terminology simplifies service needs."
Navigation between the language options is easy for library staff and their patrons. Paul Burden, Manager of the Information Services Department at Eastern Regional Libraries in Australia relayed to me how much easier providing user assistance to Chinese-speaking patrons has become. "Emma Zeng, a native Chinese speaker, had previously been translating the OverDrive pages and putting together handouts and PowerPoint presentations of her own to help her explain how the whole platform works – now all she has to do is click the drop down button, select Chinese, and point when she is doing a live presentation," stated Burden. You can see how easy it is to switch between languages here.
Plenty of libraries are bound by certain legal statues or their libraries' Strategic Plans when it comes to providing multi-language support in the library. Virtual Branch Coordinator of the Sacramento Public Library, Amy Calhoun, explains it best: "One of Sacramento Public Library's goals in our Strategic Plan is to provide more of our services and information about these services in multiple languages. OverDrive has made this easy for us for the digital portion of our library service, because they now provide both content in several languages, and the interface as well."
As Calhoun mentions, OverDrive also offers a wide array of non-English digital content for your library's digital collection. Furthermore, if you're not sure how to select materials in a language other than English, just contact our Collection Development team at collectionteam@overdrive.com, and we'll happily set up carts of materials for your review.
According to Burden, "To quote the immortal Jean Luc Picard, as ever the experience of setting up a new product with OverDrive was as easy as saying, 'Make it so'…and it was done." So, if you'd like to add bilingual interface options on your library's OverDrive-powered digital library site, it's super easy! Just contact your Account Specialist and let them know which language(s) you would like to add.
Krystal Cole-Williams is an Account Specialist with OverDrive |
Monday, August 12, 2013
Bilingual Interface options for your next generation digital library
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