Added an OPDS library book server to my media server.

I had no real concept about what software was available to share a library onto a network.  I knew that it was possible because I saw the option in fbreader.  Fbreader is some great software that I have been using for years.  

I did a google search and stumbled across this site by luck:  http://blog.slucas.fr/en/oss/calibre-opds-php-server

What this person did was to use a database and directory created in Calibre as the basis of his library, and then write software to put that library onto the network using the OPDS protocol so that it was accessible to any compatible book reader.    His philosophy is that Calibre is a great product, but way too large a foot print and too many dependencies to use for an embedded file sharing system, like I built last weekend.
 
Getting the service running was a breeze. I just followed the 5 step directions on the site where I downloaded the web app. The only snag I hit was having a space in the directory name of the path to the book folder. Once I got rid of the space it just worked. The error page I got was very clear and pointed me right at the problem.

I pointed fbreader on my pad computer at the library by clicking back, open network library, add catalog and putting in the path to where the software lives on my web server.   

This web service works amazingly well. I am using fbreader on my pad computer and am able to browse the directory of books about 100 times faster than browsing the same directories on a local sd card on the pad computer itself.   The memory consumption and required processing power to share the library is minimal as well.

Great job Sebastien Lucas!  He is the author of this great web service.

Now I just need to load everything I own into that Calibre library and I will be set.

This is the view of the web service running in a web browser.

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I ran into one issue with minidlna needing too much memory if I had it include my image and music folders.  I only have 256MB of RAM on the server, but plan on buying a 1GB memory card next week when I make a trip to the big city. This should allow me to index and share my music and images using minidlna.