Minutes for 12/08/2015

E-Content Committee Meeting 12/08/2015

Announcement: This will be the last time we use GoToMeeting for our E-Content Meetings.  We will be switching to Zoom.  Anyone who has ever attended a meeting with Mark Noble already has experience with the product.  We will be sending out the new meeting link, before our next meeting in January.

OverDrive Development Plans Presentation by Meghan Volchko - Jimmy

  • Meghan Volchko is replacing Mo Hamdan as one of our OverDrive representatives.  Her expertise is collection development. Meghan will share information about what overdrive develop plans are for 2016. We originally scheduled this meeting hoping to share with OverDrive some of our thoughts about directions that we would like to see. Meghan will share what OverDrive is doing. The second half of the meeting will be about moving content from our ACS into the OverDrive collection. The project is currently scheduled for January 4th, but that could still switch.  Not all the titles we wanted to move have been given the “go” sign yet. There will be time for questions and answers after the presentation.
  • Meghan Volchko’s Presentation (Video) - mvolchko-at-overdrive.com – (216) 573-6886 ext. 356
  • After her presentation, Meghan talk about the movement of our titles. She spoke with OverDrive's legal team and to Andy, who is our account specialist. As of right now, looking at the list (see Publisher List) this is what we have for the content transfer of the Marmot titles. Currently, OverDrive does not have an answer from Akashic Books, Capstone Press or McGraw-Hill.  These publishers have not spoken to OverDrive, and are listed in white.  
  • Action Item: Jimmy suggested that OverDrive should write a letter to all three publishers stating that we will honor the terms of the books owned by Marmot Library Network in the OverDrive system, and all they need to do is responded if they object.  Meghan will bring the suggestion for this letter to their legal team.
  • The publishers in red are the ones that OverDrive does not have a relationship.  Jimmy let Meghan know that we have a person at eBooksAreForever, who is very willing to work with OverDrive.  eBooksAreForever will be moved as local content to the OverDrive system. It will be part of the Marmot collection.

Publisher List

Action Item: Meghan will bring August's name (eBooksAreForever) to their publisher team to let them know he is willing to work with OverDrive. Meghan will also move Harriet Freiberger, because she is a local author.

OverDrive Development Suggestion

  • OverDrive is looking into the development request to enabling a patron purchase option where the patron would purchase an eBook (and donate it to the library) would get their name put at the head of the hold queue.  

Q & A with Meghan Volchko

  • Q: Would the Facebook login count as a library patron check out of an item, and how would a library get those statistics?
  • A: To login through Facebook, they will still need an OverDrive account where they put in their home libraries credentials. You will see it as a check out from your library.  It will be attached to their library card number.
  • Q: Are some of the publishers changing their pricing model?  Publishers like Random House becoming cheaper, and some of the leased titles becoming more expensive. Could you expand on this information?
  • A: There will be changes coming to the Penguin/Random House at the beginning of next year, but we do not have details yet.  We knew something was going to happen, because of the merger.  The big change that OverDrive has live is that Simon and Schuster are continuing on with metered access for some of their titles. They are piloting the ability for people to choose the amount of times, they would like to have their titles available, either the 24 or 12 months. If you see a TBD (To be determined) for the pricing in a cart, that is because it is one of the new models for Simon and Schuster. They want you to pick either 24 or 12 months. There is a slight discount for having the 24 months. There will be changes at the beginning of next year for the Penguin -Random House. They are still working things out and finalizing things.
  • Q: This is in regards to the TBD carts.  We purchase for the consortium, and have an automatic setup to buy more titles based off a certain number of holds.  Those orders did not automatically go through, if the publisher was offering two pricing models. Yet, there was no email letting us know that there was an extra cart that needed to be attended to. Could we make  a suggestion that OverDrive find a way to notify the buyers that they have those carts there, like your metered access carts?
  • A: Yes. The people in content sales have been suggesting the same thing. The more librarians we have suggesting this change, the faster things will go.
  • Q: Can we put up Kindle files in our local content with OverDrive?
  • A: Unfortunately, OverDrive does not have the ability to do Kindle files in the local content. OverDrive can ask Amazon again, but we do not have the permissions.
  • Q: This is in regards to the amount of titles available with local content.  This may be a consortium wide setting.  Is there a setting what would allow one library to make 10 copies available, and one library only 2 copies available?
  • A: No. They are simultaneous use, so there should not be an issue with people running out of copies.
  • Q: This is about patrons being able to buy content and how that would work?
  • A: There is a development request for this same suggestion from Jimmy.  OverDrive is looking into a "Buy Now" feature for patrons to buy it, and add it a library’s collection. Meghan will let us know if this is really something the development team can or cannot do.
  • Q: Is there a way to have a dedicated section for local authors in OverDrive?
  • A: OverDrive has the ability for members to curate lists within your collections. Since local content is not something that is purchase through OverDrive, curation does not know to look for it. Meghan can send out the steps, or OverDrive can do it for you with a list of titles. It can be featured on your homepage, or in the feature collection section of your OverDrive page. You can permalink to website as well.

General Information

  • Just to recap the Publisher List.  This is the list of content to be moved. The greens are already done. The whites Marmot will finesse into being done.  Marmot did not buy the content on the Publisher List with unlimited use.  We can add them as local content.  However, OverDrive will need to find a way to limit them to one user at a time. Just a reminder that these titles are not discoverable in Pika. They will be unavailable until we move them into OverDrive.
  • Action Item: Jimmy will send an email to Meghan at OverDrive regarding each of the publishers in white, from the Publisher List, with a copy of their agreement.

The Biblioboard presentation will be at our next meeting on January 12th.

Meeting Date: 
Tuesday, 2015, December 8
Documentation Type: 
Meeting Minutes
Committees: 
eResource Committee