offer multiple "read now" formats from search

[SJ]

Interface request : Offer links to ways to read a work directly from search results:
   read online (whatever the default is, currently flipbook), other downloadable formats (txt/html/pdf/other from IA)

That way a searcher who wants to browse the text of a number of results can open new windows for each of them and browse the books themselves efficiently. I would like the same thing, with more detail, on the edition details page.

There is space in the current search result entry to add these links without taking up more space on the screen, which is also good for smaller displays.

[SJ (meta-sj)]

In particular, epub formats would be useful in OL -- for some devices and interfaces epub is one of the best fast-rendering formats. Where possible, epub formats should be available for books [often these are better laid out than the available html formats]

[Edward Betts (edwardbetts)]

Are we going to offer this? If so what would it look like, if not can we close this bug?

[George (george-archive)]

It's stymied somewhat by the introduction of the work level. We're linking to all available formats from the work page, and make a best guess at the most appropriate edition that's available and how to get to it (read, borrow, daisy) for any works with ebooks.

So, it is possible to select "Only show ebooks" and click open multiple "read"able texts as SJ requests.

I think providing links in all the formats available would be a bit much on the search results page... Perhaps we could look at changing the prominence of edition-level results in the search... say, if you could filter the list by whether an epub is available, then it could switch to an edition-based display.