OSL Minutes: E-Zone Committee Meeting, October 2010

Old Business: The group decided we would not pursue the One-Click Audio program at this time. We discussed that while getting exclusive Recorded Books authors was tempting, the process of learning new download software, along with training staff and training patrons on how to use a completely different interface would be a significant drawback. In addition, budget woes and staff shortages make it unlikely that Steering or the membership would even consider this product at this time.

New Business:
E-Book Summit recap: Ed and Deb attended as well as Mattie. The general feeling was that there are some who think ebooks will replace physical books rapidly, while others caution that until drm rights are sorted out, the changeover might take longer. If anyone would like access to the E-Book Summit program, please contact Lisa so she can give you the login information.

Project Gutenberg: the titles have been added to our site. Lisa thinks that besides Boston Public Library, we may be one of the first consortiums to offer these titles through the Overdrive site. Already over 400 Gutenberg titles have been checked out. Lisa will ask Overdrive to move the Project Gutenberg graphic to the top of the page and replace the "man pointing" graphic for now. Discussion about adding a message to the scroll at the top of the page: we can only change the text in the Welcome box. The other scrolling messages are fixed messages.

LibraryBIN: LibraryBIN is an Overdrive site where patrons can purchase ebooks and audiobooks for their own personal use, and a small portion of the proceeds would go to the Ezone for future purchases. The group looked at an example on the DC Public Library overdrive site, where each title has a link "Want to own this title? 'Buy it Now' at LibraryBIN - a digital bookstore that serves public libraries!" There was some interest from the group. We decided to hold off on LibraryBIN until we can find out what percentage would we be getting from each sale. There was concern that we would be driving customers away from our library lending model by making it easier for them to purchase titles.

Suggested Collection Development Policy: Julie passed out examples of the Vermont and New Jersey Overdrive collection policies. We would like to take portions of each one. Lisa was interested in the Gift section and the Patron Complaint section. The group would also like the policy to contain preferred format information (mp3, epub, and unabridged, etc) and a section on weeding for books that aren't circulating, i.e. old travel guides. Julie will make a draft and email it to the group.

There was a discussion about weeding the collection. Lisa is going to ask Overdrive if there is a way we can trade in and/or trade up old travel guides, etc. to keep our collection up to date. We can see titles that aren't circulating by going to Reports in Content Reserve and looking under Activity Charts or Title Statistics.

PR Subcommittee: the last few months have brought many opportunities for positive press for the Ezone. Lisa suggested a subcommittee in order to get out our messages in a more unified manner. Press releases, brochures, enewsletters with RSS feed and a Twitter account were some ideas we discussed. Julie suggested that Ed head the committee since he has so much experience with the media, and Sue Rousseau, Deb Rock and Julie will assist as members. Ed suggested we focus on both PR and marketing.

Quarterly meeting: we discussed having someone request that the membership try and purchase lots of epubs before the holiday season which is sure to see the sales of e-readers skyrocket. Mattie was chosen but if she can't do it someone else will. Julie will email Joan to ask if we can do this during the "other" portion of the meeting.

Libraries who donate funds to the EZone: please make sure if you are selecting materials using funds from another library that you send them a list of what titles were purchased, the price of each title, and in what format.

Patron requests: if there is a strange or suspicious request in the Suggested Titles inbox, please let Lisa know so she can contact the patron.

The Drupal site is almost ready to go. We will receive training on it starting in January.

Other: the group decided to add the free "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" group-narrated audiobook to our collection. This recording was produced at the 2010 ALA conference and voiced by several librarians and narrators like Ken Burns and Dennis Lehane.

Other: Ed is going to promote and instruct on the use of the EZone with the Nook at the Barnes & Noble store in Cranston in November. They contacted him and asked him to help customers see how easy it is to get free library books on the Nook. Deb Rock of Warwick is also going to be working with the B&N in Warwick on the same project. Julie will ask the Greenville and Middletown libraries if they have been approached by B&N representatives.

Upcoming webinars: Lisa is going to host the "Browse, Checkout and Download" and the "Become and Overdrive Download Specialist" for the Children's Services and YA librarians and staff on December 1st at OSL. Please get out the message to your children's and YA staff.
Lisa is also hosting for OSL staff the "Browse, Checkout and Download & Patron Assistance" on December 8th and "Purchasing Content for Ezone and Running Reports and Statistics" on December 10.

Other: Sue Rousseau reported that she had signed up for NetGalley, which is an online e-galley site. Has HarperCollins and HarperTeen titles. E-Galleys are delivered to you once you sign up and the service is free. Sue also heard that a free app for Adobe epubs for the Apple ipad is coming soon, called the BlueFire Reader.

Meeting adjourned 4:05 p.m.

Next Meeting:
January 21, 9:30 a.m. OSL offices

Respectfully submitted
Julie Holden, Chair

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