Minutes for 10/13/2015

 E-Content Committee Minutes October 13th, 2015

Zinio revisit – Jimmy

• Jimmy - I want to start a conversation about whether we want to continue with Zinio for another year, or look at other products? With the lack of conversation, I'm taking this as everyone is okay with Zinio. This is the forum where we want to confirm that, because if we are not, this is the time to start an RFP process. It already feels like it is a little late year like it did last year. If we do not do a big comparison, we still want a smaller group to come together and look at the current subscriptions decide whether we want to add, edit, delete any of the subscriptions that are on the list right now. A new member like Rampart coming back in affords the opportunity to add some titles to the content lists. If we say that Zinio is fine, we should narrow our focus down to the list of titles and decide whether we want to fix it.
• Action Item: We should move forward with the renewal and then form a committee today to move forward with looking at the competitors.
• Alysa - The last time me did this we looked at the competitors very fiercely. We just did not go out for an RFP, because once they did their demos not one could compare with Zinio at the time. That was a year ago, so we went ahead and renewed. I am very reluctant to drop a platform once we have initiated one. It takes so long to train staff, and we have a good patron base who use this product. To take it away and make them reconfigure their devices to something new is something I would do very cautiously. I would very much support renewing Zinio, and looking at the title list to see if we need to change anything.
• Shelley - Does everyone agree with Alysa that we look at the title list instead of looking at competitors? Does anyone disagree with that suggestion? Jimmy - we are not seeing any chat messages.
• Shelley - I think the people who are using Zinio need to be on that committee.
• Jimmy - One Zinio member is Basalt. Chris is online, are you okay with Zinio? Chris - yes, we are fine. Alysa just spoke for Bud Werner. No one is on the call for Eagle Valley, Englewood, Garfield. Jo from Vail is fine staying with Zinio. Karen from Englewood Public is fine with Zinio. There is no one online from Pitkin or Wilkinson. When you show up at committee meetings, you have a voice. When you do not show up your voice is not heard. We will post the minutes for anyone who missed the meeting to speak up. This is a good representative set of people who are concerned about this issue.
• Action Item: I think we have a decision. One more year of Zinio. We can get a smaller group of just the libraries who participate in Zinio. Tammy and Jimmy will put together the current title list, and distribute it to the people involved. We will work with a smaller group to fine tuning this subscription list. We just renewed titles for the next four months. Zinio is trying to the point where we have just one invoice at the beginning of the year in February.
• Jimmy - Let us plan our new titles list for 2016 to start as of February 1st. We have a few months to go through the titles. I think that in everybody's best interest. One thing we did not do this year, that we hoped we would see last year, was Zinio APIs getting more seamlessly integrated into our Pika Discovery layer. We did not see any motion on that from Zinio this year. It is on Mark's road map for Pika development. We will pursue that again. We might see some improvement with the users interface through the catalog. It had not been a burning issue. I think even without them proving their ability to do API, we good with their concept of good public service.
• Alysa - We just put in MARC records. Maybe we need to do is refresh all of our images. Another image round on our MARC records.
• Shelley - Are you finding that your patrons are really using Zinio and like it?
• John - I think Bud Werner gets a handful of patrons inquiring how to set-up and use Zinio. I do not know what the statistics are for folks who do not come to the desk. We have to instruct patrons on a weekly basis for registration and access.
• Alysa - Bud Werner's numbers are good. We are happy with the usage we have been seeing.
• John - The fact that patrons can download magazines to their device forever, and get notices when they are released each month or week, they are very happy with that service.
• Shelley - Is it the cost for everybody?
• Jo - Originally, we did buy ins, and decided how much money we could put to towards it. We bought titles based on that money. I do not know how it is configured now.
• Shelley - Maybe we could bring that up at our next meeting for those libraries who are not participating right now, to see if we can grab a few extra libraries knowing the cost structure.

Total Boox - trial/pricing - Jimmy and those who did the trial

• Shelley - Next is Total Boox update from last month when we had a presentation from Peyton. We have four people who actually looked at the product. Jo from Vail, and Liz from Pine River. Alison from Telluride, and Heidi from Grand County. I did get some feedback from a couple people via email.
• First response was from Alison. She says I still like OverDrive better. I am using an iPad to download eBooks. With the Total Boox app, you have to go to their website first. Next, you go to the app to read the book. There are two places you have to go to read an eBook. With OverDrive, I can select the book and read it in the app without having to go to OverDrive's website first.
• Peyton responded that their iOS app now supports the iPhone. It went live in the Apple Store earlier this month. At the moment it does not support in app downloads. We should be able to add that function in the next release which will come soon.
• Jo responded that she agrees with Alison the requirement to shop on a browser and read on a device using an app, means you are doing double duty just to start reading. Also, there is no browser app, you cannot read on a computer. You need a mobile device to use this product. Jo found it easy to use, but would rather have a more seamless interface, and a way to read on a browser.
• Liz's comment is that it is awkward to shop on one device, and read on another. It is impractical and inconvenient. When she first used OverDrive, she use to select bedtime reading titles on her laptop, and read them to her son on the kindle app on her tablet. It could work for some folks. The content was not as terrible as she feared it would be. They were not the mainstream popular titles that she expected, but the curated content actually held some wide appeal. She would have been able to find something to read, but not the item she was looking for in the beginning. Liz tried to find four or five specific title, and failed. She votes no at this time. The model is interesting. With Kindle adaptation, a browser interface, and the ability to browse in check out within the app, these guys might hold a candle to Overdrive.
• Heidi from Grand County says to stick with OverDrive, because it's a much better product.
• Shelley - do any of the people who did the trial want to add anything to what I just said.
• Jo -The email from Peyton about better integration is certainly helpful. I never added a comment about the titles, because I was just turned off by the double duty that you had to do to start reading. The titles were okay, but I would rather spend my money with OverDrive that this point.
• Shelley - Let's open it up to the rest of the group. I think we have a really resounding no, unless someone thinks there is something we're missing here, and would like to take another look, or go forward in some way.
• Jimmy - Let me share something. We did get a price quote. One of the comments sounded like OverDrive or Total Boox. This is not an either or thing. We are too heavily invested in OverDrive to move away from OverDrive. The question is do we want to augment OverDrive collection, and do we want to divert some of our OverDrive finances into a collection like this? The quote we got from Total Boox is 168,085 for the number of active card holder across all Marmot libraries. Based on that number of active card holders, $37,000 for a content budget is what has been purposed. $10,000 as onetime fee to get it set-up in year one. Every year after that we are into it for $37,000 a year. When I talked with Peyton, and said the only way I could imagine members getting involved in Total Boox, was if they were willing to divert $37,000 of what already is our OverDrive budget. As a group were are putting $169,000 that we as a group are investing in the shared collection. If we liked Total Boox more, we could say spend $37,000 less on OverDrive, and put that money into Total Boox. The beauty of doing that with our OverDrive collection of about 12,000 titles would be cranked up by 50,000 titles that all come as a set. Total Boox is pay as you go, so it is not by the titles that you might want. It's rent the whole collection, or subscribe to the whole collection. Every time a patron uses it, they would be retching up the money that gets charged to the libraries. This $37,000 is a not to exceed figure. Total Boox saying that even in your patron's use the collection more than we budgeted that it is not going to penalize Marmot. We would be on the hook for $37,000 worth of use. If we liked the product better, would we be okay with reducing the amount we spend on OverDrive, and supplementing our OverDrive collection with the Total Boox collection? Comments or questions?
• Alysa - I am not interested.
• Shelley - I would like to stick with just OverDrive.
• Action Item: Jimmy will get in touch with Peyton to let him know that Marmot is not interested in Total Boox at this time.
• Jimmy - If there was one app that could do Total Boox and OverDrive, we would have renewed interest. The problem with Total Boox is they depend on that app to count pages. Whether New York Public Library Simplified is going to do that for us is kind of their problem. I am very happy to go back to Peyton to tell him the challenge is on for you to interact with Library Simplified. New York already knows that they have to make that work with OverDrive. Do they know yet that they have to make it work with Total Boox, I don't know? If Total Boox can solve the problem for us in a year from now, than they are back in consideration. Otherwise, this multiple app thing, we have always had a rounding core of those agreements that too many apps is bad public service.

Odilo - Shelley

• Shelley - Odilo update from Pine River. We became the soul library looking at this product. I keep putting them off, because we are so interested in the Spanish content. For our little library our set-up fee was going to be a onetime $1000. We were going to put $500 on account, and basically just go for the Spanish content. However, what we have not decided is whether this is a format that our Hispanic community is comfortable with and wants to use. For right now, I am not ready to make the leap. That is all I have to report on it. When we decide, or not decide definitively, I will let you know.

Biblioboard - upcoming presentation - Jimmy/Shelley

• Shelley - Biblioboard will be presenting to use next month. Take some time to look at their website. They are a company that is focusing on building new publishing models. One of their models is this self-e, which is a collaboration with "Library Journal," that allows authors and libraries to work together to expose notable self-published eBooks to readers looking to discover something new. They have two different products that I can determine. One is an author platform. There is also the biblioboard library which is where these anthologies are published and promoted. That is a quick overview on what kind of company they are, and they will be the first on the agenda for next month. Anyone have an experience with them, or want to say anything about them, before we move on to OverDrive?
• Jimmy - It seems with the two types of products that there certainly is a potential overlap with the digital archive project. But, we will learn more when they do the presentation. They came on the screen at first looking like an eBook competitor. They are coming at this at a very different angle, and emphazing this self-published that is better for our local authors than what OverDrive can do for them.
• Shelley - They claim to be the second largest growing media company. They are definitely worth looking at, I think.
• Alfredo - CCU currently uses them. We got a comment from one of our brand new faculty members. He was not too impressed with it. One of the things I do like about it, and we could probably speak more about after the presentation to give you our angle. It's almost like searching on Google by the image. I just put in the search for Syria. I get everything from maps to book covers, and a bunch of documents pop up. It has an interesting amount of content. If I remember correctly a lot of what they display, you can generally use the images which the students like for their PowerPoints and other presentations. Maybe I can get Gayle, who has been using it longer than I have, to speak to us after the presentation to see if folks want to learn more about it.

OverDrive Purchasing Update – Alysa

• Shelley - Last thing that was added to the agenda was OverDrive. Alysa will do a quick overview.
• Alysa – I want to give the group an update on how Joyce and I are buying, and how we are filling the hold lists. Below is a visual to show the amount of items I purchased for Marmot each month. In March, I bought 38 Penguin titles that have to be renewed by a certain time. I bought 3 HarperCollins titles that expire after a certain amount of checkouts. I could purchase 50 holds with the $2700 allotted each month for purchasing holds. In August, our Penguin and HarperCollins renews are pretty high. After renewing all the titles in August, this only left me with $281 dollars to fill holds. In August, we needed $8518.44 to fill holds. In October, we need $6093.79 to fill holds.
• Alysa reviewed the list of items that Marmot will be sending out to members to purchase. We would need $6093.79 to fill the holds for October. If members could go in and buy some of these titles, that would be great. This is the time to be saying that we need to be putting more money into the collection with the new renewal situation that we have, and continues to grow ever year for our Penguin and HarperCollins titles. Any questions?
• Shelley - The group knows that there is about a half dozen of us who have been sent titles to purchase over the last two months. Are you not going to do the same thing this month?
• Alysa - I will be sending out a list to everyone this month. I wanted to give an update about whether this new system will work to help us bring our holds down. In reality, it has brought our holds down by $2000. However, it has not brought it down to a working level, so Joyce and I have enough money every month to deal with the renewals and holds. We need even more dollars dedicated to the collection in OverDrive in order to meet the demands, holds as well as renewal of expiring titles.
• Shelley - Over the last few months, did we not get our full number of titles purchased with the libraries that participated or contributed?
• Alysa - I took a look at the list after everyone purchased in August, and it looked fantastic. That is how popular that OverDrive is, because the next month things can skyrocket.
• Jimmy - Alysa will send this list to me. I will look at the people who are under budget for their plans for the year. Those libraries will receive a shopping list to purchase items. This year we allocated $35,000 to holds and renewals. The budget for 2015 was $56,000 based on input that I have gotten so far. The budget for 2016 is going to be more like a $170,000. If we say that 22% of everyone's budget is going towards renewals. The $35,000 from last year is going to go up a chunk. We need to do careful arithmetic.
• Action Item: Alysa, Joyce and Jimmy will start a conversation looking at how much we have been trying to spend, and how much more the shared number needs to be. The $35,000 was not based on any science. It became clear that we needed to allocate some money to the holds and renewals. We have been investing more in all the big five publishers whose titles expire. We are not sure if this needs to be 22% or 25% of everyone's budget. I just wanted to get everyone up to speed about what we are trying to do.
• Shelley - There is an OverDrive discussion about Marc records that seems to have been resolved.
• Jimmy - The question that came up is when we move titles off the Adobe content server to OverDrive that there is a check box asking if we want to move Marc records. I will check "no," because we do not get Marc records from OverDrive. Anyone using Marc records to send to EBSCO will not need any new Marc records. Anyone who needs them to be in EDS, can always go to the OverDrive site and download what they need. They can send it to EBSCO on their own. The point is that we do not have to buy Marc records from OverDrive, because we can get Marc records for free. People who need to do that for EDS, can do that without Marmot's assistance.
• Shelley – One question about OverDrive was the migration of titles from the Adobe Content Server. From the minutes last month there was a question about whether or not we will still own those titles? Second question was from Alysa about local published materials from local authors. Does that go in to the repository, or can OverDrive handle them? The third question one was about uploading eBooks using the OverDrive facility which had not been a positive experience. Jimmy did you want to address those questions?
• Jimmy - We should take it at face value that OverDrive will honor any license terms. After we told OverDrive that we wanted to this, we sent them the list publishers and information. The last letter that I had gotten, I forwarded to E-Content Committee on October 9th with the subject line [E-content] Fwd: Moving content update [from ACS to OverDrive].
• Jimmy - To summarize, Andy from OverDrive said that here is a progress report. Lots of publisher responded okay. Some publisher have not responded yet. I will fill out the spreadsheet that they sent. On that spreadsheet it requests license terms. On the license terms I will say perpetual license, one check out per user. I do not expect OverDrive to not understand what a perpetual license means. Perpetual license is how we bought these, so we want it to be honored. I think we will end up with a few of these publisher that OverDrive cannot get in touch with them. Actually, four of these are individual writers like John Morris and Clifford Irving. There are a handful of books that OverDrive might not be able to get at all. We are going to have to park them somewhere. Whether we parked somewhere like a Biblioboard, or put them on a disc somewhere. At the end of this transfer, we might end up with about 50 to 100 books that we cannot put into OverDrive. We will park them somewhere, because we know that if we find a new place to put them, great. If not, they might be lost. At this point, the next move is for me to communicate what publisher OverDrive said they can work with, and here are the books that we bought, and get them into OverDrive as soon as you can.
• Jimmy - I would like to summarize the theme of everything we talked about today is all about eliminating some of the distractions. Where we are with OverDrive is fine tuning something that has been built over the years by the consortium. We are doing better with OverDrive and Zinio. We spent a lot of time trying out the Douglas County model, and thinking about alternative emagazines. I thinks it's swell for Marmot to say when it comes to eBooks to make the best of OverDrive. For the next year concentrated some of our development, and some of the digital titles that were put in the archives. People who were involved with eBook shopping are now involved with digital archives. That is now the big project for Marmot in 2016. I say it is great for us to be able to say let us hold the course with our eBooks and emagazines, and put our leading edge energy into digital archives. That is the consensus that I am perceiving across all the membership. If everyone is okay with that consensus than we have a good plan for the next 12 months.