[Lswtalk] LSW OverDrive Consortia Holds, Patron Requests, Expiring Licenses

[Loretta Gharst]

Dear LSW OverDrive Consortia,

Below is info about how OverDrive Holds, Patron Requests and Expiring content are currently purchased. Discussion points refer to point in April minutes.

LSW OverDrive  Shared Collection

Currently each member library system of the LSW OverDrive Consortia is required to select $3,000 in new eBook content annually.  Each system also pays for MARC records for this content whether they load these records in their catalog or not.

As well as eBooks the shared collection includes eAudio, eMusic, and eVideos. Ongoing management of the shared collection includes selection, purchasing added copies to fill holds, purchasing patron requests for titles not in the collection, and repurchasing popular licensed content.

Holds. The criteria we are using is automatic purchase of an added copy for ebook and eaudio titles is 3:1 with a cap of 20 copies. For example, 4 holds would require 2 copies.  These are automatically purchased weekly, both eBooks and eAudio.

[Current holds by system can be generated by an Overdrive report. This list can be converted to a cart for purchase. However because our consortia shares the collection, holds are filled on whichever copy is available regardless of who purchases.  So even though you only have one patron with a hold for a title, and the other system has 4 holds for the same title, it's first come first served for patrons.]

Discussion point:  What should holds to copy ratio be?  Should it be different for different formats? Should cap be different?


Patron Requests. - These are reviewed weekly and purchased. A cart is auto-generated and typically most titles are purchased.

[However an OverDrive report can be generated by system listing what your patrons are requesting and can be converted into a purchase cart].

Discussion point: Regarding patron requests would your library want to view, select and order your library patron's requests?


Expiring Licenses.   Currently expiring content carts are auto-generated weekly. This content cannot be separated by original library system purchased.
We get 3 carts weekly:

*         5 or fewer circs remaining

*         1 year time expiring in one month

*         Expiring Advantage titles
Titles with 5 or fewer circs remaining. These are the Harper Collins 26 circ titles. The oldest purchase for these titles is 2 years or less. So these are titles that have circulated well. These are small carts and most titles are purchased weekly, unless there are multiple copies.  Recently Overdrive indicated that they would no longer include titles with multiple copies purchased at different dates until there is only one copy remaining.

Expiring time titles - again these are affected by multiple copies. Copies purchased at different times have different expiration dates.  We purchase titles that have checked out more than 2 times in the last year and there are no newer copies still licensed.  Occasionally we repurchase "classic, best books" that have checked out 2 or fewer times in the last year.

Expiring Advantage titles - Originally these were purchased from MacMillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster. These titles can now be purchased under regular accounts.  The only big publisher still using Advantage is Hachette. Ex: Nicholas Sparks, Sandra Brown, Robert Galbraith.
Multiple copies purchased at different times have different expiration dates. We purchase titles that have checked out more than 2 times in the last year. Occasionally we purchase "classic, best books" that have checked out 2 or fewer times in the last year.

Discussion point: One of the advantages of the repurchasing process of expiring content is that it is self-weeding. We don't repurchase multiple copies that were previously needed to fill holds when the title was hottest; we don't repurchase most titles that don't circulate. For example, one expiring content cart was reduced from $28,000 to $8,000 based on the criteria above. This is pretty typical.

Regarding weeding at Calcasieu we generally give a hardcopy book 3 years in which to circulate 1 time, so the criteria for ebooks of more than 2 circs in 1-2 years is more restrictive. Not sure what other member libraries use for weeding criteria.

Looking forward to seeing you Wednesday,

Loretta

Loretta Gharst
Associate Librarian
Collection & Computing Services


Calcasieu Parish Public Library
301 W. Claude St.
Lake Charles, LA 70605


Ph. 337-721-7150
Cell 337-515-9724
http://calcasieulibrary.org




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