Minutes for 04/14/2015

E-Content Committee Minutes April 14th, 2015

Opening - Shelley Walchak

• Hello All, It's been a whirlwind of a month for Pine River migrating to Marmot, but I'm happy to be a part of this wonderful consortium and working with you as your chair of the e-content committee. I have some catching up to do and thus would like to ask that at our next meeting on April 14 at 1:00 that we do a go-around that includes the following information:
  • 1. a short overview of your opinion of where you see Marmot in regards to e-content
  • 2. where you would like to see us go
  • 3. what you would like for me to do
  • Amy Shipley (Garfield): Marmot is in a good place now with ebooks; division of duties seems right; not a lot of participation lately in this committee; seems to be a low priority now. Shelley asked about goals, and Amy responded: would like to buy direct from publishers, but purchasing is still hard. Marmot got ahead in some ways working with ebooks, but the acquisitions process is still challenging.
  • Heidi McNinch (Grand): New to GCLD and Marmot; responsible for OverDrive purchases.
  • Jo Norris (Vail): E-content needs to be consortial for Marmot libraries. Collection development, funding, etc. will benefit member libraries if done together.
  • John Major (Bud Werner): In 6 months, John is impressed with the work of this committee. Most concerned with usability for patrons. OverDrive and Hoopla are ok, but Zinio has issues.
  • Joyce Dierauer (Summit): Working with OverDrive at Marmot since it started, in 2006. Concerned that this committee should focus more on OverDrive. When the old OverDrive Collection Development Team and Ebook Task Force were superseded by this ECC, it seems like OverDrive doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Joyce feels strongly the OverDrive collection should be shared, and member libraries should be funding it as much as they use it. It’s good for Zinio to be an option (and Summit will opt in later this year). [We then went into a sidebar about how the Marmot OverDrive collection is funded and developed, how Joyce and Alysa share the job of purchasing license renewals for popular titles from Harper Collins, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster as well as hold fulfillment and one Max Access collection.]
  • Karin Martin (Englewood): Responsible for collection development, including OverDrive (working with Jon Solomon at EPL). Happy with catalog integration (Pika). Committed to consortium buying.
  • Mary Walsh (Adams State): Happy with the OverDrive collection. Good for students to meet recreational reading needs.
  • Pascal (Marmot): Pika developer watching out for questions or issues raised by this committee. [One question today was whether McGraw-Hill titles purchased last year for unlimited use were being circulated correctly in Pika.]
  • Jennifer Murrell & Sharlene Harvey (Mesa): Jennifer emailed MCPLD comments directly to Shelley. Discovery is a high priority with regard to e-resources including ebooks and new e-content now being created/collected by MCPLD.
  • Stephen Tafoya (Garfield): As tech trainer Stephen is interested in ebook usability for the public. Training needs for the public have been light lately, so his attention is more on new products (for GCPLD), like Lynda.com.
  • Alysa Selby (Bud Werner): Alysa has a long history with this committee and its predecessor Ebook Task Force. Her passion is consortial. Advantage is used to might high demand in Steamboat Springs. Ease of use is crucial. Collection management needs to be done responsibly. Recent work with Zinio collection shows what can be done (what needs to be done) for Pika integration to be usable and attractive.
  • Tiffany Wick (Western State): I’m a relatively new member of this committee. Prior to this I was a part of an informal Marmot academic eCollections interest group. Like Stephen, I am in a holding pattern to determine the depth and breadth of this committee and its goals. It is clear that Zinio and Overdrive are a large part of the committee’s focus. I really can’t comment re: Marmot consortial purchasing yet, as Western does not actively participate in either product, not to say that Western wouldn’t be interested in participating for the right product. I heartily echo other’s sentiments that easy, consistent access to our products is crucial.
  • Additional thoughts that may or may not be relevant to the scope of this committee
    •  Western is participating in the digital repository discovery project and there is great hope that Marmot will be able/willing to host the repository.
    • Are there any plans to look at PDA? Streaming video?
    • Our informal interest group discussed the idea of using API’s for uploading electronic records to Sierra instead of MARC records, such as an EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) API.

Other Agenda Items

Jo Norris and Chris Cook about their findings with Britannica and McGraw-Hill eBooks Jimmy reported on recent contacts with sales reps. Several points to stress:

1. All Britannica and M-H ebooks can be purchased in the OverDrive Marketplace with single-item-single-user license. Marmot libraries could get all this content the way we do in OverDrive with so many other publishers.
2. Unlimited-simultaneous-access licensing is available if we purchase direct (not thru OverDrive). Cost advantages of doing this should be calculated.
3. Discounts in purchasing direct should also be considered. (Britannica offers a 30% discount available thru June.)
4. A subcommittee of Jo, Chris, Shelley, and Jimmy should draft answers to the question of whether and what to purchase from either publisher.

Action items:

• Jimmy will distribute price and content info to this subcommittee.
• Shelley will schedule a meeting with Jo, Chris, and Jimmy

2. Feedback on the State Library's Boopsie initiative

• Marmot’s position with the new State Library deal is this:
  • Marmot members should feel free to accept the State Library deal.
  • Marmot members opting for Boopsie should link to Pika instead of native Boopsie catalog.
  • Marmot members opting for Boopsie should link to Pika instead of native Boopsie library account.
• Shelley will contact Alysa Selby at Bud Werner with specific questions about Boopsie. (Bud Werner is currently the only Marmot library still using Boopsie after as many as 11 Marmot libraries adopted it for a few years beginning in 2011.)