E-Zone Committee Meeting Notes
Monday, August 2, 2010
1 p.m. OSL Offices - Warwick

In attendance:  Deb Rock (WAR), Celeste Dyer (CUM), Mary Ellen Hardiman (NPR), Mattie Gustafson (NPT), Lisa Davis (OSL), Julie Holden (PAW), Ed Garcia (CRA), Chris LaRoux (GVL)

Max Access - the new Max Access subscriptions have been purchased.  Mary Ellen and Julie went over the old subscriptions and submitted 31 new Blackstone titles and 25 new Tantor titles.  We are allowed to swap out 12 titles mid-year per Karen Potash of Overdrive.  

Suggested Titles - request for Mary Ellen to change the name of the select list to simply "Patron Requests."  The committee feels we should only be buying what the patron requests and in the format that they request it.  No abridged titles should be purchased unless the patron specifically asks.  EPUBS are always preferred over PDF's.  MP3 titles are always preferred over WMA's.  Julie will write up a suggested collection development policy with this information.

If there are titles that are in PDF that we'd like to see in EPUB format, please let Lisa know and she will forward those requests to Overdrive.  Similarly, if there are abridged audios that we'd like to see unabridged, let Lisa know.

High demand holds:  we are doing okay with meeting demand.  Selectors should keep checking holds ratios on popular titles to see if additional copies need to be ordered.

Future releases:  to purchase upcoming titles so that they are available for download the day they are released, go to the Marketplace and use Advanced Search.  In the "On Sale Date" box, choose "In the Future". Libraries will be billed for upcoming purchases when the order is submitted, not when the title is released.  

OLIS Grant:  the funds for E-Zone content were discussed.  Ed had made the grant request, Joan wrote the grant application,t and Howard Boksenbaum was interested in supporting e-book purchases.  The committee decided to spend the $5000 solely on epubs as the e-book and e-reader market is expanding.  Mattie, Ed, Mary Ellen, Celeste and Deb are each going to select $1000 worth of materials.  All orders must have the name "LSTA Grant - Selector Name" and be submitted by Wednesday September 1st.  

The Download Station licenses were awarded to Newport, North Providence, and North Kingstown.  The decision was made by the committee to award the licenses to those libraries that have supported the E-Zone the most via their content purchases over the last several years.  

Any library who wishes to purchase a Download Station license for their library should contact Lisa Davis.  Cost = $250 plus $50 annual maintenance.    

A reminder that Champlin will not fund content for the E-Zone.

One-Click Audio:  Roger Corriveau, sales rep for Recorded Books, would like to show us the One-Click Audio product.  There are several authors we are missing from Overdrive, like Jodi Picoult, Charlaine Harris, and Sandra Dallas.  Recorded Books' program and pricing model differ from Overdrive's and the committee expressed interest in looking at this additional media download product.  Roger will give this demo on Monday, August 30 at 2 p.m., at the OSL offices.  

Former OSL Employees:  Lisa and OSL are asking to be notified if any employee who has access to Content Reserve is terminated or otherwise leaves an OSL library.  Those former employees' names will be removed from Content Reserve.  The committee discussed ordering limits; Overdrive cannot place an upper limit on how much money can be spent by selectors, but Lisa can compile a list of who is allowed to purchase from Content Reserve vs. who can only make a select list.  

Annual Reports:  this year, OLIS is asking for total e-books and downloadable audio books selected by each library.  Lisa is asking OLIS to clarify exactly what they want us to count.  Some libraries who donate funds may not be giving themselves credit for their purchases of e-books and audio books.

Overdrive Dashboard - beta:  This real-time statistics tool will be useful but in its current form ha some bugs.  

MP3 downloads:  if given the choice between buying the MP3 or WMA version, please choose the MP3 version.  MP3 files can be played on more devices, including Blackberry, Android, iPads, iPhones, Sony e-Readers and Nooks.  

Mattie suggested that someone make a pitch at the November membership meeting for more epubs, since many of our patrons will be getting new e-readers for the holiday season and beyond.  Requests for e-books are growing.  Julie will ask Joan or Steering to put this on the agenda.

Question about OAB vs. OMA:  on our order lists for Content Reserve, there is a notation for either OAB or OMA.  OAB means WMA format and OMA means mp3 format.

Meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Julie Holden
E-Zone Chair