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The Library Simplified project aims to streamline the experience of borrowing electronic books from a public library. We offer:

• A mobile e-reader (iOS and Android) that focuses on patron experience and accessibility.
• Seamless integration of collections from multiple vendors.
• Easy access to a wide variety of public domain and open-access books.

Our goal is to make borrowing ebooks as easy as buying them.

This wiki is written by the Library Simplified developers and intended for use by technical staff at public libraries. For details on how to get your library involved, see the Library Simplified website and the SimplyE Confluence site.

Getting started with development

• Deployment Instructions
• Configuring a Demonstration Circulation Manager

Overview

Library Simplified is a collection of middleware, server software and mobile client applications for iOS and Android that libraries may use to deliver digital content to their patrons for experimentation or daily eBook services. It is designed to provide a unique user experience for the lending of eBooks and other digital content. It integrates with technologies and systems common to libraries like:

• A Integrated Library System/Library Management System (ILS/LMS)
• Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
• Single Sign On (SSO) credential management system
• Commercial eBook hosting and distribution services

The SimplyE Confluence site includes documentation on setup, configuration, and the operation of the community. This wiki focuses more on the technical underpinnings of the software. To see how to get involved with development or how to deploy the system at your library, start at "Ways to Contribute".

All issues components are tracked in NYPL's JIRA installation. JIRA accounts are currently limited to active developers, but you can see issues, comment on issues, or file a new issue without a JIRA account.

All development and code review happens here on Github. These are our main project repositories:

• Client-side Readers

  • iOS app
  • Android app

• Backend Servers

  • Circulation Manager
  • Metadata Wrangler
  • Library Registry
  • Server Core

• Front-end Web Applications

  • Patron Facing Client
  • Circulation Manager Admin Interface

• Deployment Tools

  • Circulation Manager Docker configuration

Installation, Configuration, and Development

• Getting Your Books Into SimplyE
• Connecting the Library Simplified circulation manager to your ILS
• The configuration file
• Setting up lanes
• Contributing to the project
• Deployment for development
• Creating new server-side integrations
• Server release process

Deployment and Docker

• Deployment: Nginx & uWSGI
• Deployment: Quickstart with Docker
• Automated Jobs and how to use them
• Docker AWS examples:
  These are rough guides detailing a few tested methods for deploying the Library Simplified Circulation Manager on AWS. They are by no means complete, and we highly recommend independent research to identify AWS platforms and orchestrations that best suit your needs.
  • nypl/circ-webapp on Elastic Beanstalk
  • nypl/circ-scripts on ECS

Troubleshooting

• Error handling
• Troubleshooting "books don't show up in the feed" problems

Architecture

• Overview
• The standards we use
• Our common data model
• The generic metadata layer
• The generic circulation API
• The generic authentication API
• The annotation API
• Elasticsearch -- sorting and searching
• The Simple Signup Protocol
• DRM autodiscovery
• Short Client Token for federated patron management
• The ACS Device Management Protocol
• OPDS For Distributors
• The User Profile Management Protocol
• OPDS Directory Registration Protocol
• Temporary Token Access Control
• OPDS For Library Patrons, our library-specific extensions to OPDS.
• Our extensions to the Authentication for OPDS spec
• APIs implemented by the Metadata Wrangler
• Supporting multiple libraries on one server
• The HasFullTableCache class

Client architecture

• OPDS Acquisition Spec

Proposed changes

• Wikiregistry of unique library IDs
• Integrating the circulation manager with the library registry
• Improvements to contributor tracking
• RFC: Canonical Contributors

Recent changes

• Multiple collections in one circulation manager
• Multiple libraries in one circulation manager
• Multiple authentication mechanisms in one circulation manager
• Library registry search algorithm
• Library registry
• Storing lane configuration in the database

Integrations

Sources of content

Primarily ebooks

• The Library Simplified open-access content server
• Overdrive
• Bibliotheca (formerly 3M Cloud Library)
• Axis 360
• OneClickDigital (from Recorded Books)
• desLibris (from the Canadian Electronic Library)
• Many content sources have no API and cannot be properly integrated into Simplified.

Sources of open-access books

• Project Gutenberg
• unglue.it
• Standard Ebooks
• Others

Sources of metadata

• VIAF
• OCLC Linked Data
• OCLC Lookup
• Others

Other integrations

• DRM access control servers
• Adobe Vendor ID server

Metadata

• Classification
• Discovery