eContent Committee Meeting 06/08/2021

eContent Committee Meeting
06/08/2021

Recommend to Library (RTL) Overview (Abbey Patton, OverDrive)
Recording

• RTL request will contain most of the information that a patron must fill out using the Marmot OverDrive Purchase Request form. This is due to the OverDrive authentication when a patron signs in.
• There is a report in the Marketplace that can be run to see what your patrons are recommending.
• The first person to recommend a title that is purchased will automatically be the first person to get the title.  
• Once an RTL title is purchased it automatically flips over into holds.
• There is a development ticket for the OverDrive support team to allow library staff to place holds on behalf of their patron but that may not happen for quite some time. For now, RTL is the best way for patrons to be first on the hold list for titles they recommended.
• Once the title is purchased, the patron will get an email that their library has purchased the title and they will be on the hold list. 
• There is no system in place for when a library does not choose to purchase a title to inform the requesting patron. You would need to reach out to the patron to let them know. 
• If a title is not available in the Marketplace, it does not show up for the RTL feature. It does have to be available concurrently for sale in the Marketplace. Titles that are no longer available for sale because there is a new edition will no longer show up in the RTL, only the new edition will display. The expired Metered Access titles that have been weeded will also not display.
• A limit can be set for the number of recommendations patrons can have in a set period of time. However, the RTL is set at a consortium level so everyone has to agree on a set number. 

Q&A

• Q: In the past, Alysa would use the Marmot OverDrive Purchase Request Form to request titles for OverDrive to purchase. Would we still be able to use this form in case the title the patron wants is not available in OverDrive? 
• A: Yes, absolutely. OverDrive can leave the link to the form at the button of the page. The wording can be “Not seeing a title you like? Click here.”   
• Q: What if the title is not available for purchase in the OverDrive marketplace?
• A: If the title is not available for purchase in the OverDrive marketplace it is not going to show up on the RTL site.
• Q: Can carts be set up to be auto-generated weekly?
• A: Yes, there is an RTL manager that works just like the Holds Manager. These reports will be set up from your advantage accounts. Advantage accounts automatically restrict the carts to only your patron’s information. 
• Q: Will excluding abridged audiobooks from the RTL carts remove abridged audiobooks from the patron's view?
• A: If you exclude abridged titles from your cart that does not exclude them from your patron’s view. It will just stop them from showing up in your cart. However, the RTL report should be run to find the patrons who recommended those abridged titles to let them know you will be purchasing the unabridged version.

DPLA signs agreement with Amazon Publishing Discussion (Liz)

• Their ebooks available to U.S. libraries
• More detailed info: DLPA news 
• Liz spoke with Michelle from DPLA who will attend the July meeting to give us more information about the DPLA agreement with Amazon Publishing.
• DPLA joined with two other companies and received a grant to upgrade SimplyE to enterprise level
• The new platform will not be ready until September 2021.
• The content does not include Amazon Audible. DPLA is in talks with Audible but has not reached an agreement yet.
• It is eBooks and eAudiobooks from the Amazon imprints publishers and will be available by the end of June.
• They are offering to import in the Libby content, as well as contact from other providers except for Hoopla.
• A DPLA representative will be at our July meeting to show their robust reporting module and give an update about the project. 
• Ashley mentioned that OverDrive has a very robust API that works great with Pika. She is not sure what moving everything would look like in terms of establishing some kind of connection, or what that work would entail as it relates to other prioritized work for the Software Development team.  

Review the system for potential vendor voting, and demos as they relate to the eContent Vendor Questionnaire responses (Tammy)

• Tammy asked if there is any reason a vendor would be excluded from being considered
  • Vendors without stats would be lower on the list of potential vendors or not considered at all
  • Vendors without MARC records will depend on the vendor
  • Authentication issues without a Marmot workaround might be a deal-breaker
• Tammy will start sending out emails with the links to the spreadsheets with any updates on new vendors so the group can vote. The newest vendors will be added to the columns on the right on the Potential Vendor voting spreadsheet.
• The Vendor Questionnaire will still be sent to all new vendors

Overdrive Contribution vs Use Review Subcommittee (Cecilia, Liz, and Adam)

• Cecilia had questions about how the contributions to OverDrive are broken out for the consortium. She mentioned that when we have to split the cost for a new vendor, we know how much we have to pay. 
• Cecilia wondered if we are all contributing what we should compared to each library’s usage.
• Cecilia had a few questions for the group:
  • How do CPC titles fit into the shared purchasing since those titles cannot be shared?
  • Is every library sharing all its titles?
• Adam reviewed the Marmot Shared Overdrive Collection document that is an equity study comparing individual member libraries’ percent of the total financial contributions for the last three years. He also included a comparison of the LSA/FTE data looking at the amounts budgeted vs contributed for the past three years. He is currently working with OverDrive to create a report on the return on investment ratios. 
  • Contact Adam if you want to know the number for your library 
• Some libraries do not have a formalized sharing plan, and others are not sharing their purchased materials. Adam mentioned that these two issues actually eat away at the very concept of having a shared collection. He thinks we need to start formalizing a service-level policy for shared eContent.
• Cecilia and Liz proposed having a subcommittee look at the contributions and make suggestions for changes. The group would help to firm up the sharing rules and give their suggestions to the Marmot Board.
  • The following people agreed to join the subcommittee: Haley (Bemis), Sara Simon (BV), Whitney (Garfield), Rebecca (Summit), and Jo (Vail).
• If you did not attend the meeting, but would like to be included in the subcommittee please contact Liz.
• Action item: Liz will contact the volunteers for the subcommittee to set up a meeting time to discuss rules for the shared eContent collections. This would also include goals for the group as well. 

Other Business

• EBSCO Collection Expansion (John)
  • EBSCO vendor has a new rep, Lance Voger.
  • When Bud Werner is conducting academic research for patrons they find that the Academic Search Premier that comes in the EBSCO suite package from CLiC sometimes does not meet their needs.
  • John wondered if they could get an a la carte upgrade via EBSCO for a specific database.
  • John wondered if any of the public libraries would be interested in increasing their academic search capabilities with maybe Academic Search Elite.
    • Montrose might be interested because they share a building with a branch of CMU.
    • D51 Schools purchases EBSCO and might be interested.
  • Yuliya commented that they would love to have the complete EBSCO packaged. She wondered if CLiC would look at upgrading the EBSCO package to have Academic Search Complete for the entire state the next time they are negotiating. 
• Adam suggested that CLiC is a great place to start because they have a well-established relationship with EBSCO for the packages they already offer. If there is no interest from CLiC we could bring this back to Marmot to discuss further.

The next meeting is on July 13 at 1 p.m.

• Update since the meeting: The DPLA discussion about their agreement with Amazon Publishing is being pushed to the August meeting.