Meeting Minutes for 12/08/2020

Blackstone Audio Renewal (Liz)

• Checkout Spreadsheet
• The group decided to continue with the Blackstone Audio purchase for 2021.
• The group decided to replace the titles highlighted in green and blue on the spreadsheet.
• The following people will be meeting to decide on a list of title replacements: Liz, Nathan, Rebecca, Tallie, and Tammy.
• Tammy mentioned to anyone new to the process that the price for the Blackstone Audio purchase is divided equally among the members who participate in OverDrive. Marmot will be sending out an invoice in January. The Blackstone Audio simultaneous use purchase needs to be made before January 26, 2021.
• Action Item: Tammy will also get in touch with the people who volunteered to set up a meeting to review available titles. The replacement titles list will be sent out to the group for approval. 

RBdigital Magazines Availability in OverDrive (Tammy)

• All-in Pricing or Individual Advantage Libraries. If the group does not all agree on sharing the cost, libraries will need to purchase the magazine collection separately with their Advantage account.
• The purchasing price will vary depending on library circulation for individual Advantage purchasing. 
• At this point, OverDrive is only offering the entire collection and is not offering the ability to choose smaller packages.
• Here is the current list of RBdigital magazines. The Economist is included in the list of OverDrive magazines at no additional charge.
• Unfortunately, OverDrive currently does not offer the Flipster titles that some Marmot libraries purchased last year. Tammy has given Abbey Patton (OverDrive) a list of the Flipster titles to check if the publishers would be interested in adding them to the OverDrive magazine collection.  
• Action Item: Tammy will invite Abbey Patton to the ECC January meeting to demo the OverDrive magazines.

Flipster Renewal (Tammy)

• Flipster Titles will be renewed in January. The more libraries that are interested in the collection the amount each library will have to pay will decrease. We had 6 libraries last year that purchased this collection. 
• Action Item: A few more libraries are now interested so Tammy will get in touch with all the libraries about pricing.

Vendor Questionnaire (Tammy)

• Tammy asked the group if they are okay with her sending the vendor a link to the Vendor Google form, or if they would prefer if she sends the vendor the questions from the list on this Google doc.
• The group was okay with her sending the vendor the Google form because it has a spreadsheet with all the answers.

Vendor Updates (Tammy)

• The PressReader pricing was shared with the group
  • Here are the minutes from the 10/13/2020 PressReader demo includes a recording for anyone who wants to know more about PressReader. 
  • There was a question about the deadline to get the PressReader Pricing.
  • Another question about the overlap of magazines between RBdigital and PressReader.
• Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Purchase Update 
  • Unfortunately, the WSJ does not use EZProxy so Marmot is looking at using Pika for authentication.
  • The 16 libraries think the pricing is getting too high for this product.
  • Library patrons will get remote access to the WSJ.
  • Sean mentioned that If the libraries want statistics they will need individual access links. It is very difficult in a shared system to have more than one link, so it would have to be a shared link that can be accomplished with EZProzy/Pika solution that will allow for unique links for each library for statistical reasons. 
  • A reminder that WSJ does not allow access to an app. You will only have access to their mobile version of their website only which is not an optimal experience. 
  • There are only 6 months of access to their back issues.
• Action Item: Tammy will contact PressReader about the deadline on the pricing. 
• Action Item: Tammy will contact the PressReader rep about how the members can access the app.
• Action Item: Tammy will create a spreadsheet showing any overlap between the RBdigital Magazines and PressReader magazines.
• Action Item: Tammy will compare the newspaper titles from PressReader to Newsbank.
• Action Item: Tammy will ask the WSJ rep if the pricing can be reconfigured by the total population of the current 14 public libraries instead of the pricing for all 20 libraries. She will also ask about how statistical reports will work with one shared access link. 

Other Topics

Vendor Purchase Suggestions (Tammy)

• Tammy will be contacting reps for the following products. Please send her any contact information for a rep you have been working with for the following vendors or other vendors. 
  • Denver Post
  • Valueline
  • Skillshare
  • Newsbank
  • Freegal Music
  • Rosetta Stone
  • Mango Languages
• Timeframe for demos and pricing 
  • There was a question about gathering vendor suggestions throughout the year, and getting on a schedule for demos to coincide with the library’s budget planning.
  • Libraries gave suggestions about when to have demos to plan their budgets for purchasing new products.
  • Some budgets are due in October so summertime demos would work best for public libraries.
  • Maybe start demos in June through August.
  • Academic libraries and schools are planning their budgets in December, so spring demos might work best for them.
  • Tammy will ask the reps if they can give the group at least 6 months or more to make a decision.

The next meeting is on January 12 at 1 p.m.

Agenda item: Abbey Patton will be joining us to show how RBdigital magazines will work in OverDrive.