Meeting Minutes for 09/14/2021

The Palace Project, a division of LYRASIS and strategic partner of DPLA Discussion

• The group discussed waiting until the platform is more developed.
• The group is also waiting to hear if they will strike a deal with Amazon for access to content from Audible.
• Someone tried to look up their funding source to make sure it was not Amazon. Thinking if they were funded by Amazon they might start charging in the future.
• For library staff to ask their patrons to use a second app there is going to have to be some real value-added, and the value is not there yet. 

Fairness & Equity Documentation Discussion (Cecilia) 

• The subcommittee looked at the eContent Shared Collection Development Guidelines to bring it up to date for the group’s shared OverDrive eContent collection. 
• The old document did not cover how the group decided how much money to spend on this shared collection.
  • We get a guideline for every other database and service that we look at based on our service area population.
  • It seems odd that it was arbitrary on how much we put in for our shared eBook collection.
  • As a director looking at the budget you would not know the expectation. Looking at the use and data, how would you know if you are paying enough?
  • Marmot libraries as a whole had over 30,000 unique OverDrive users during 2019. In 2020, it went up to hit 40,000 unique users. Currently, it is pretty sustained since we are at 38,000 unique users year-to-date. 
  • What do we need to do to make sure we keep these people on digital and keep our collection strong?
•   Adam did a great equity study and covered some of the highlights from the document.
  • Compared contributions to use, LSA/FTE funding, and budget vs actual.
  • Chart 1: Percent of Contributions vs. Use (3-Year Average) on page 3 shows noticeable areas where the 3-year percent of contribution averages and the 3-year percent of use average were somewhat off base and is an area of concern.
  • Table 2: Budgeted v. Contributed per LSA/FTE (3-Year Average) on page 4 ranged all over in terms of the percent of what was budgeted and what was actually contributed.
  • This consortial shared collection is an asset that is owned by members that gets heavy use from a large number of users. We have to prioritize and figure out how to manage this asset moving forward.
• Cecilia explained each section of the documentation and asked for feedback.

Documentation Discussion 

• Frequency and Sharing Section
  • When should acquisitions be shared?
    • The group decided that titles should be shared within 7 days. 
  • Should these titles be shared manually or automatically?
    • Some libraries like sharing manually to see the holds and if the item is checked out. They would not like this to be mandated.
    • The document will be updated with a suggestion to share automatically but how you share will be at your discretion.
• Growth Section  
  • Recommended budget (shown for public libraries)
    • The LSA and FTE were taken for 2020 and $1.06 was multiplied for column C.
      • Only the student FTE was used for the academics
    • Quarterly spending (column d) is the actual amount of money that libraries have used for purchasing. 
    • Currently pledging (column e) is the amount that each library stated they would spend on a shared collection.
    • Extra needed (column f) is the extra amount of money a library would need to spend to make up the difference from what they pledged to what this new budget was to take effect. Any library exceeding the amount has a minus number. Any library that should be spending more is highlighted in yellow.
    • Actual spending (column g) is what each library has actually spent this year towards the shared collection.
  • This is not meant to be recrimination. This is a call to communicate to directors that here is our usage and request more money for digital content. It is a way to draw attention that if we want to keep this momentum on digital content and keep the collection strong we need to put more resources into it.   
  • There is nothing punitive. This is an expectation that we are trying to keep this part of our consortium strong. This is a suggested expenditure of $1.06 (per LSA/FTE) for 2022.   
  • We know that some libraries’ budget years are lower due to circumstances and some are higher. We are a consortium that supports each other. If a library is doing well they can hopefully pick up the slack for another library that is having financial difficulties.
  • In the past, Bud Werner covered the cost for the Steamboat libraries for OverDrive spending. Tammy was not sure if they will continue to cover the cost in the future. Tammy will need to verify with Bud Werner.
  • Shelly commented that the SD51 schools could not sustain the amount that is currently budgeted for them.
• Liz brought up something that was not covered in the subcommittee meetings. Using this model her library is doing fine. When Liz looked at the chart that Adam created, when she looked at Pine River’s use compared to what they put in, they were upside down. Even Though she is putting $1.06 per LSA, they are actually using it heavier than what they are monetarily contributing. By the $1.06 per LSA metric they are doing okay, but she is not sure if they really are because their patrons are using it even more than their fair share.  
• Someone asked for the checkouts per library. Here are the checkouts that match the same time period as Adam’s equity study.   
• Cecilia mentioned that the cost per LSA/FTE was one consideration. She suggested that we could look at use, however, she thinks that would be really hard to manage year-to-year. She thinks that a shared principle is that we want people to use digital content. If the schools need a different formula let us come up with some suggestions. It’s not that you must pay this amount, it’s a suggestion. The formula is a baseline for a budget. 
• Adam shared a graphic he created for the shared Marmot OverDrive collection use from 2016 - 2020. It goes from just under 3.5 million in 2016 to a gain of 822,000 in 2020. Adam does not think this is going to change or flatten out anytime soon. The conversation the group is having now is a data-driven/data-informed approach to thinking about the shared collection. Marmot’s OverDrive shared collection is over 2 million dollars in value at this point, which makes this a very useful decision. Not to invalidate the perspective of the academic and schools that have very different budgets and use categories. Academic libraries tend to be net lenders of physical materials that public libraries would not have access to otherwise.    
• Cecilia recapped a few important aspects of the document. She reminded the group of the paragraph that includes other contributions in the documentation to address the academic and school FTE budget issue. 

Marmot libraries concede the need for flexibility in the appropriations of funds in years with negative impacts on libraries’ general revenue, as well as acknowledge other contributions (e.g. more physical item lending or participation in Marmot governance) 

Again, this is a guideline, an expectation, and best practice and no one says there is a penalty for contributing less than $1.06 per LSA/FTE or going over $1.06. More so punitive for not sharing and practices for when to share.  

Action Item: Cecilia will update the document with the two points for the amount of time before sharing and adjust the language for how to share content.

Action Item: The subcommittee would like to forward the document for approval to the Marmot Board. 

OverDrive Recommend To Library (RTL)

• During the pandemic, it was decided OverDrive would allow patrons who had expired cards to continue to checkout OverDrive items. Liz apologized for asking for this to be changed but did not send out information to alert others.
• Once that practice was changed, the number of recommendations dropped drastically.
• Liz asked the group if it would be okay to change from 5 to 3 requests per month for the RTL to cut down on the number of requests.
• The group agreed to the change.
• Action Item: Liz will contact Abbey Patton to have the number changed to 3 per month.

The next meeting is on October 12th at 1 p.m.