OverDrive libraries across Melbourne

general
01 Sep 2023 AdrianSimionov AdrianSimionov

Not everyone is as lucky to live in Singapore and have access to such an amazing OverDrive collection as National Library Board but this does not mean that us living around Melbourne are that unlucky either.

Or, as of March 2025, be a Kiwi and have access to The Largest Collection of over 241K ebook titles. Well done City of Aukland, you are very close to the Singapore library. If I am not mistaken, based on my statistics, I am pretty sure now Aukland Overdrive Library is one of the largest in the world.

Melbourne is lucky enough that libraries budget is managed at the city council level giving each group of libraries the opportunity to choose the option they want for the eBooks collection they offer. A significant number of library groups went with OverDrive and being a resident of Victoria does give you the opportunity to sign up with all of these libraries if you wish to.

Below you can find a curated list of libraries with which if you sign up, you get access to their OverDrive collection. Again, every city council will have a different budget and therefore the collection they have will be different, but some of these libraries have a significantly large collection.

Best e-reader I could find which supports OverDrive integration is Kobo from Rakuten (although I currently own a Kindle Oasis). I would also recommend using a Chrome/Firefox extension called Available Reads which integrates well with GoodReads and will search preconfigured OverDrive libraries for e-books availability.

As of March 2025:

  1. BooBook merger (ERL, WML, YPRL) - 87.700+ - boobook.overdrive.com

  2. Boroondara Library Service - 37.700+ titles - boroondara.overdrive.com

  3. Greater Dandenong - 32.300+ titles - greaterdandenong.overdrive.com

  4. Moonee Valley Libraries - 19.400+ titles - mooneevalley.overdrive.com

  5. Moreland City Libraries - 15.500+ titles - virtualmerri-bek.overdrive.com

  6. Port Phillip - 6.800+ titles - portphillip.overdrive.com

  7. Maribyrnong Library Service - 6.600+ titles - maribyrnong.overdrive.com

  8. Bayside - 4.100+ titles - baysidelibrary.overdrive.com

If you do know any other OverDrive libraries in the area, please let me know in the comments below.

AWS Color Palette

aws
24 Apr 2020 AdrianSimionov AdrianSimionov

If you even wondered what is the palette AWS is using in the official diagrams and presentations, below you will find my first attempt of publishing an unofficial color pallete. Unfortunatelly I could not find an official one, if you ever find one please do let me know.

Both the dark and the light palettes are using 4 Background Tones with 2 Foreground Tones each, complemented by 8 Accent Colors. Pretty simple but with a consistent and fascinating effect.

First things first, the dark background palette:

And probably the most used one, the light background palette:

I added the RGB values as well if you ever want to recreate it in OmniGraffle or Visio for you own needs. This is Generic RGB.

I do not yet know the reasons why these specific colors where chosen; I do have the feeling they started with Red 700 as a base Monotone color and worked from there, but this is just a feeling for now.

PS: Please do not ask for an Azure one because I already looked into it and everything is just a mesmerising rainbow there for now.