[OPLINTECH] Downloading Stations

[Nathan Eady]

"Omar Sanford" <sanford at wrightlibrary.org> writes:

> I am looking into having download stations for music, games, etc. 

If the content they want is available for download in a traditional
fashion (http or ftp), it's a relatively simple matter of allowing a
removable storage device (these days, probably USB Mass Storage
devices, which probably means you want front USB ports) and allowing
the relevant traffic through your firewall.  (Plus of course whatever
policy changes you have to run past your library board or whatever.)

However...

> I am wondering if anyone has implemented a download station with
> other websites like iTunes or Rhapsody? 

I would expect iTunes to have the same sorts of issues as instant
messaging services, centered around the assumption of a more-or-less
permanent one-to-one-and-onto relationship between people and
computers.  The resulting problems would probably have to be resolved
on Apple's end before you could do a whole lot about them on your end.

I mean, I suppose you could provide each of your patrons with a
personal virtual machine image, but that would be a whole lot of
trouble, and it still wouldn't get around the problems the patron
will encounter if they try to use the same service from another
computer.

It is also worth noting that iTunes is not really a website as such.
It *has* a website, but for that matter so does Jell-O.  Unless I am
missing something it is not possible to download music directly from
the iTunes website in the traditional fashion like you would download
software from SourceForge.  That simply isn't how the iTunes service
works.  I haven't used the service myself, so I could be missing
something, but to the best of my knowledge it is not a website.

I don't really know what Rhapsody is (unless it's a musical form
characteristic of the Romantic era), so I can't say whether the same
considerations would apply there.

-- 
Nathan Eady
Galion Public Library