The meeting was held at the Ocean State Libraries office in Warwick on May 9 and convened at 10 a.m.  Those in attendance were:  Lynda Ross (CRA), Celeste Dyer (CUM), Joan Gillespie (OSL), Debbie Barchi (BAR), Chris La Roux (GVL), Becky Boragine (LIN), Mary Anne Quinn (WAR), Deb Rock (WAR), Mattie Gustafson (NPT), Mary Ellen Hardiman (NPR), and Lisa Davis (OSL).
 
SURVEY--There was discussion of the survey that was available on the E-Zone website.  Over 200 people responded to the survey.  Many respondents wanted more of everything, early return of items, all of the titles in a series, formats for iPod and Zune players, and no abridged works.  Barchi suggested we share the results with Overdrive.  
 
There was some discussion about Overdrive offering items in a format compatible with iPods.  No one was sure if we had to purchase a different format, or if the format would be compatible with iPod and MP3 players.
 
Lisa Davis offered to contact Overdrive and inquire about possibly allowing us to offer early return of items or user-defined loan periods.  This would accommodate those who finish their reading/listening quickly and need materials more frequently.
 
OCLC RECORDS- Lisa Davis told the committee that 2,000 OCLC MARC records had been uploaded to the Millennium OPAC.  There are also expanded icons in the OPAC.   E-Zone items will have their own icons in the near future.  She suggested that the term “downloadable resource” be used in the location code area, so that patrons will know that items need to be downloaded, as opposed to ordering from a particular holding-library.  The code would also protect the records from being deleted cleanup, which would happen if no location were present in the record.
 
She asked if the committee wanted to screen out part of the record that calls for player software to load upon calling up the record.  There was consensus that this would be confusing on library OPACS.  
 
Lisa expects to download about 100 or less OCLC records per week.  She will also turn on the audio reviews feature.
 
DEFINING PATRONS—Lisa Davis received a call from a woman in California who wanted to download one of the E-Zone audio books.  Her local library had the service, but not the title.  The title is not in “print”.  A discussion ensued of the differences between interlibrary loaning of print materials and sharing of data in electronic format.  Licensing agreements and copyright laws drives use of the latter.  
 
COMBINING RESOURCES—Hardiman suggested that we look at ways to share materials between consortia.  She cited an example she found of two consortia, one in Ohio and the other in Wisconsin that share materials.
 
TRAINING—Lisa Davis offered to do training workshops for the staff of OSL member libraries.  The workshops would include ordering and downloading content.
 
OTHER—Hardiman mentioned that there are several selection lists that are getting stall.  She recommends people review their lists and order or remove them, because the titles show up as on order when they may not be.  This developed into a discussion of members that don’t have the time or expertise to order materials, but have the money.  Several members offered to put lists of materials by age group and/or genre.  Libraries with money to spend before the end of the fiscal year could contact the OSL office by e-mail and authorize billing to the library.   The following lists will be done:
            Mysteries and adult fiction                         Mattie Gustafson
            Adult materials                                             Lynda Ross
            Non-Fiction                                                   Mary Ellen Hardiman
 
Barchi agreed to e-mail libraries about this service.
 
MARKETING—The committee requested that PR materials about the OSL E-Zone be available at the RILA conference on June 5 and 6.
 
MEETING—The next meeting will be on Friday, September 5 at 10 a.m. at the OSL office.
 
Respectfully submitted,
Chris La Roux
Director
Greenville Public Library