Accessing Libraries from Aldiko

Although we usually talk a lot about the world of ebooks and the eReader, they are only two aspects of a great activity such as digital reading. Every day progress is made in this field and although most of it focuses on developing new and more powerful eReaders, there are also a few that focus on software development, such as the Caliber team who together have created a powerful manager of ebooks for almost any eReader and user. But there are several software projects that greatly benefit the digital reading experience. A case of all this is the use of the OPDS standard and apps for smartphones or tablets that allow us to access information from almost any ebook or book that existsAll you have to do is configure our application with the correct addresses. In this little tutorial we have used Aldiko although you can use any app like Moon + Reader, fbreader, Marvin or others. The fundamental question is that the app supports the OPDS format.

Install OPDS fonts in Aldiko

We assume that you have installed a reading app and you already have it working, If not, do it before continuing reading. We open Aldiko and go to the upper left part of the screen, where it puts the Aldiko logo, click and a menu will appear with the app options. Nor we go to the section «Get Books»And click«Other catalogs«.

A screen will appear with two tabs, one that says «Suggested Catalogs»And another that says«My Catalogs«, We go to the latter and press the button in the upper right that says«New Catalog«. With this, a secondary screen will appear that will ask us to enter the name and url of the new catalog.

In the images you can see how I have used Internet Archive but you can put any other one, as long as you have the address. You click Accept once you have it complete. Now you will return to the screen My catalogs where you will find the catalog that you have added. Now you just have to look for the ebook or title you want. In some cases, the title will be accompanied by a download link for you to download and use. In other cases, only the public information of the title comes.

The potential of these tools is very great and if we already incorporate a catalog that offers us the possibility of downloading ebooks without leaving the reading app, the result is equal to hours and hours of reading. You will tell us what you think and if you want to share the OPDS source of a catalog, you are free, while here I point out some that you can use freely.