E-Zone Committee Meeting Notes
Monday, April 12, 2010
1 p.m. OSL Offices - Warwick

In attendance:  Deb Rock (WAR), Celeste Dyer (CUM), Mary Ellen Hardiman (NPR), Mattie Gustafson (NPT), Sue Rousseau (POR), Lisa Davis (OSL), Julie Holden (PAW)

Download Station Pricing:  Overdrive has quoted us a flat rate of $250 per license.  There is a small yearly maintenance fee.  Pawtucket has purchased the download station software but has had equipment issues and it is not up and running yet.  Julie will report to the committee when the software is working.  Any library that wants to purchase the software should contact Lisa Davis at OSL.

Requests for donations:  Lisa had success asking libraries at the quarterly meeting to donate funds for the Ezone.  At least six libraries pledged funds for Ezone content, which has all been subsequently spent by committee members on new materials.  

Apple iPad:  is it compatible with the Ezone?  Not sure.  Celeste later found out that both MP3 and WMA audiobooks can be transferred to the iPad, but it does not currently support the eBook formats (Adobe PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket) supplied by Overdrive. (DRM restrictions)

Discussion about e-book readers: Sony Reader cannot have both PDF and EPUB on it at the same time.  

More on donations:  Mary Ellen considering writing to fellow directors thanking them for supporting the EZone and encouraging them to continue their support.

Suggested Titles:  the committee discussed how to best handle the numerous title requests we have been receiving.  Mary Ellen and her staff are going to create a "Suggested Title Select List" on the Content Reserve website.  Committee members can look at this Select List, and transfer any titles they would like to purchase to their own Select List.  

Committee members are also encouraged to check the suggestions message board and purchase anything they can.  

Max Access:  we need to come up with our annual list of 100 Maximum Access titles and give it to Lisa by June 20th for fiscal year starting July 1.  Lisa will also need a list of the old Max Access titles in order to remove the records from the OPAC.  Mary Ellen will run a list of popular items that will be returning to Max Access and the rest of the committee can come up with new items to purchase.

"The 100 Most Popular Books That You Don't Own" lists are not generated by Lisa Davis, as shown on the Content Reserve site.  Lisa will ask them to remove these lists from our Select Lists, as they cause confusion.  

High Demand Holds:  Julie will be emailing the committee monthly with High Demand Holds.  Some of our holds lists have risen into the 20's, which is great.  Members can look at High Demand Holds at any time by looking at the "View Current Waiting List" section of Content Reserve.  Sort by "ratio" to get the holds ratio of each title.  

The next meeting will be on Monday, August 30 at 2 p.m., OSL Offices, Warwick.

Respectfully submitted,
Julie Holden
PAW