Minutes for 01/13/2015

E-content Committee Minutes January 13th, 2015

Items discussed:

1. Discuss any proposals already received. RFP Proposal from Overdrive: On first review, the proposal seems complete, with thorough answers to our questions and requirements statements, a complete title list, and one glaring functional problem.

2. Identify a small team to evaluate proposals ASAP after Jan 16 Closing Date.

3. Book a meeting the week of Jan 19 to discuss all proposals, and select the winning bid.

Item 1 – RFP from Overdrive

• RFP 2.2 Marmot prefers user authentication with a single sign on. Describe the procedure for patrons to access for the webbased platform (i.e. how many steps will it take patrons to log in?)The answer from Overdrive is the end user wishing to checkout periodicals would be required to have an Overdrive account as well as a Nook account.
  • The group decided that this does not solve a problem. It seems to have the same issue as Zinio. The group did not want to change to a new product and inconvenience their patrons, since Overdrive was not any better than Zinio. The only possible reason to switch to Overdrive would be that it is much cheaper than Zinio. With Overdrive a patron would read the magazine in the Nook app and not in Overdrive, which pulls their patrons one step further away from their catalog. It is not an improvement over Zinio. It takes a lot to implement a new system, get staff trained, market to their patrons and change information on the website that they are not willing to switch unless there is a compelling reason to change.
• RFP 2.6 Which devices are supported now? Nook does not support Window phones.
  • This is a problem for the members.
• RFP 2.8 Does your application send spam to patrons? The answer from Overdrive is no.
  • However, one of the members disagreed and stated that she had received advertisements after downloading the Nook app to her android phone. It might be something you can be turn off, but she was unsure.

Questions:

• Can other libraries join Zinio? Interested library members were instructed to contact Jimmy.
• Have you seen a significate usage of Zinio at the currently libraries who use it? Most answered yes.

Motion: Do not go forward with Overdrive. Move forward with possibly switching to Flipster or Overdrive in 2016. It is too short of a timeline to switch, before February 1st . A proposal was made that the members stay with Zinio for one more year. There was a motion to go forward with the Zinio renewal. Individual libraries can decide to stay with Zinio or go with another option. The motion was approved by the group.

Item 2 – Identify Small Team to Evaluate Proposals

• The team is Amy Shipley, Sarah Greenbergvan, Kristen Baldwin
• Question: even though there will be a small group evaluating the other RFP documents, would it be possible to send those documents out to the list? Yes.

Item 3 – Book a meeting the week of January 19th

• The group decided that the meeting the week of January 19th would not be necessary. The opted to wait until the February 10th meeting.

Action Items: Renew with Zinio. A decision needs to be made with current Zinio title selection as far as discontinuing those that are not circulating, and choosing title that might circulate better. This needs to be done before February 1st . The group will need to come up with a way to choose from the existing list of magazines.