Meeting Minutes for 04/13/2021

eContent Committee Meeting
04/13/2021

Skillshare (Anna Carmichael)
Demo Recording

• The library package includes unlimited access to the entire database of curriculum containing over 25,000 classes in various categories like business, creativity, and lifestyle courses.  
• One to two original courses are added every month. An original course is done by an in-house production team where they partner with individuals and brands to create content specifically for Skillshare. The individuals have been identified as influencers and leaders in their fields. 
• An open-source platform is used so people from the Skillshare community can post their content that meets specific guidelines that is monitored by an in-house team.
• The more a library patron engages with the site, the more the algorithm will recommend classes.
• Skillshare also has workshops with reminders about the deadline for completion 
• All courses are project-based and have transcripts
• There needs to be one primary administrator for all the libraries that purchase the product, as well as other administrators who help manage the users. Each administrator will take up one seat.
• This product is for public libraries only
• Pricing  & Vendor Questionnaire Response
• Free trials will be available to interested libraries after the demo

Q & A

• Q: Do you supply Marc records for your content?
• A: No. Currently, Marc records are not available. There are no plans at this time to get Marc records.
• Q: Are there captions available within the viewer?
• A: Yes. You can turn on captions that will follow along with each course.
• Q: When it comes to pricing what is a seat?
• A: A seat is equal to one person logged in.
• Q: Do you have user statistics? Each library would need to have its own statistics.
• A: User statistics and engagement reporting are not included in the library package. Anna asked what type of statistics we needed. Alysa answered that we not only needed the number of patrons who use the interface but how long they visit. Those are just basic statistics that are counted for everything. 
• Q: Can we set up Google Analytics on the back end through the Skillshare interface?
• A: No. Skillshare does not work with Google Analytics. The usage reports they supply are done by a third-party tool.
• Q: Are statistics an extra cost?
• A: Anna will have to speak internally to find out what the cost would be for the reporting.
• Q: How will patrons be authenticated to get into Marmot seats since we all have different patron barcode schemes?
• A: Library authentication and user management will be up to the library to manage. Skillshare does not have any authentication practices.

Other Business

• Skillshare discussion
  • Vail commented that they are done with databases that cannot be loaded into the catalog
  •  The lack of statistics and authentication was also discussed
    • Skillshare does not use library cards and it is up to the library to authenticate
    • The group wondered if Marmot could help with authentication as they did with the Wall Street Journal
  • There was a comment that the content is beautiful to look at and fun but not sure if a library can get the patron engagement out of it
• June Meeting
  • Tammy wondered if the June meeting could be a discussion about where we are with vendors and where we want to go next in regards to demos. Here is the potential vendor voting spreadsheet.   
• Database Suggestions
  • Buena Vista is discontinuing the EBSCO and would like to get something more skill-based training. If anyone has any suggestions, please add them to this spreadsheet or share that information with the ECC email group. Please add any potential vendors under the “Other Vendor Suggestions” column.
  • Update since meeting: OverDrive shared an email about new databases and streaming media services that they have added to their platform for purchase. These are legacy services from RBdigital.  Tammy has asked Abbey Patton at OverDrive if they could look into adding a skill-based training database or streaming media service if such a service was available. Abbey replied that if we ever have any suggestions, they would welcome them.

The next meeting is on May 11th at 1 p.m.

• Agenda Item: Demo for CuriosityStream
  • Vendor Questionnaire Response