In attendance were:  Becky Boragine (LIN), Lisa Davis (OSL), Celeste Dyer (CUM),  Ed Garcia (CRA), Mary Ellen Hardiman (NPR), Julie Holden (PAW), Beth Johnson (CRA), Chris LaRoux (GVL), and Deb Rock (WAR).

Disaster Workshop:  Lisa Davis started the meeting by informing us about the disaster workshop she attended in California at the headquarters of Innovative.  The information she brought back to Ocean State Libraries will be important for creating a disaster plan for OSL.

DigiBookmobile:  Ed Garcia and Beth Johnson related events that took place at the Overdrive  DigiBookmobile stop at the Cranston Public Library on September 21.  There were demonstrations of AskRI, BBC Audios had an author signing, Newport Creamery gave away free ice cream, there was an iPod case-making craft, and key chains and plastic book bags were given away, as well as BBC talking books.  Cranston Mayor Allan Fung opened festivities and was the first to board the DigiBookmobile.  There was press coverage in the Providence Journal, Providence Business News, and the Cranston Herald newspapers.  Beth J. made wonderful baked treats for the staff volunteers.  Photographs of the all-day event are on the Cranston Public Library website via Flickr.

Following the DigiBookmobile event new patron registrations were up, some reported as much as 15-20% more in a  month.  Lisa D. offered to have statistics available on E-Zone registration and usage for the OSL quarterly meeting being held the next day.

Suggested Titles Form:  Rick Payette was unable to attend the meeting.  Lisa D. asked if anyone had received any questions via e-mail concerning titles to purchase.  Rick needs to create the link to bring the request forms to OSL via e-mail, since form coding is required.

Share Feature:  The committee members discussed the new option of sharing titles downloaded from the E-Zone, and opinions on the item, with others via Twitter and Facebook.  It was agreed to have the feature turned on.  The comments will reside on Twitter and Facebook, not the E-Zone site.  Someone remarked that it could be a venue for an on-line book club.   Lisa  D. agreed to find out if we will get statistics on sharing usage.

ADDD Grant:  The ADDD challenge and media grants are available for next year.  The deadline for applications is January 2010.  Suggestions for grant-aided projects included digitizing local history and uploading to E-Zone database and “Be an Advocate” program whereby authors would give the E-Zone digitizing rights to their works.  Questions included, should there be criteria for accepting materials to be digitized, are there standards for scanning established by Overdrive, and who is allowed by Overdrive to upload content?  Mary Ellen H. and Chris La Roux volunteered to research and write the grant proposal(s).

Election of Committee Chair:  Chris L. mentioned that it is time to elect a new chair for the E-Zone Committee and requested a vote for a chair at the next meeting. He is busy with a building program and it is good for the committee to have new leadership.

Ordering:  There was discussion about E-Zone members purchasing content.  Patrons using the service has increased but purchasing is not keeping pace, resulting in heavy reserving of materials and a long wait for some titles.  Many patrons have requested being able to reserve and check out more titles, but there isn't enough content to allow that.  Mary Ellen H. presented research that she had done, as to titles ordered and usage, which is high.  Lisa D. offered to run off statistics for the OSL quarterly meeting being held the next day.  The committee agreed that if library directors saw the number of people borrowing from their libraries, they might be more inclined to order more content.  

Public Download Stations:  Someone asked about the cost for a public download station from Overdrive.  Lisa D. said she would look into it.

The next meeting will be  Monday, January 11 at 9:30 a.m.  at the OSL office in Warwick.

Respectfully submitted,
Christopher La Roux
Chair