1.Stretching Your E-BookDollarsKathy Petlewski Electronic Resources LibrarianPlymouth District Library mkp@plymouthlibrary.org

2. Todays Topics Include . . . Brief review of the various e-book vendors Benefits and drawbacks of joining a consortium Finding a consortium to join E-book collection development philosophy Budget-wise approach to purchasing Using statistics to stretch your dollars Paying for your collection Free sources for e-books 3. Lets start by taking a poll!How many of you already have an e-bookcollection?How many of you are considering an e-bookcollection?Dont forget to press submit. 4. Choices in E-Book PlatformsThe Big Three Overdrive Axis 3603M Cloud (Baker & LibraryTaylor) 5. OverDrive (1986) 650,000 premium digital titles from more than 1,000publishers Serves 5,000 libraries, consortiums, schools, and collegesworldwide Offers downloadable music, videos, e-audio books and e-books in a variety of formats including Kindle compatible. Advantage Program allows individual members ofconsortiums the ability to purchase digital materials just fortheir own patrons. APIs coming in late April to better integrate OverDrive withILS systems. 6. 3M Cloud Library (2011) Currently in use at 10 beta sites with general releaseinstallations at 30 library systems in April. More than 40 publishers with over 100,000 titles. Discovery Terminal download stations in libraries Integrates with Polaris ILS allowing unified accountand seamless searching. 3M E-Readers made for lending environments areavailable for purchase.Works with PC & Mac, iPad & Nook, iPhone &Android but not Kindle right now. 7. Axis 360 (2011) Baker & Taylor bundles physical books & digital formatin a single ordering process. Uses the Blio ereader app. (text-to speech capabilities) 198 publishers currently with about 112,000 titles butnew agreement with Smashwords will addindependently published authors and their works. Currently supports Windows, Android and IOS, butPDF and EPUB formats will be supported by the end ofApril. (no Kindle) 107 libraries or library systems currently have signedon, with 38 live as of March 2012. 8. Freading (2011) The ebook companion of Freegal multiple users canread simultaneously on pay-per-download model. Token system used with number of tokens neededbased on the publication date of book Over 20,000 titles available, but none from the Big Sixpublishers. No MARC records and no ILS integration at this point. Books come in PDF and EPUB formats and may beused with iPad, most Android-based tablets & phones,Nook, Kobo, Sony and Kindle Fire. 9. Time for another shortpoll ! If you already have e-books, how many of you are in a consortium? How many of you provide e-books as a stand- alone library?Dont forget to press submit. 10. To Join or Not to Join - That is the QuestionIs a consortium right for you? Share start-up costs for opening-day collection. MARC records are purchased once for everyone. Joint responsibilities in collection development. Collective purchasing power in a consortium for a variety of formats (e-audio, e-book, e-video etc.) Being part of a consortium provides support and information from other members of your group. 11. To Join or Not to Join -That is theQuestion Is a stand-alone subscription right for you? Your Library has total control over the look of the web page with your branding. You spend as much or as little as you decide for your collection. Collection development can focus on local community needs. You have the staff and budget to do so! 12. Finding a Consortium to Join Ask your local consortium or state consortium if there isone open for you to join. (Some are closed by OverDrive.) Ask your states library association. If you are already working with apreferred vendor, ask them. Post to listservs in your area. 13. Creating Your Own Group Get the word out that you are establishing agroup by email, & regional meetings and ask forparticipants. Notify your state library or consortium since theymay be able to provide expertise. Once you have enough libraries, meet to select aplatform or several platforms to investigate.Request information and demonstrations fromthese vendors and make your choice. Establish a collection development philosophyyou can live with. Set the pricing scheme and budget for theopening day collection and at least one year. 14. E-Book Collection Development Decide early on if you want a comprehensive collection that mirrors your physical one Popular collection of bestsellers and media favorites Only adult or a mix with YA and Youth Establish a budget and decide how you want to allocatethe funds. Set a holds ratio that fits with your general collectionpolicy. Select a person or group to do the actual purchasing. 15. The Storefront ApproachOur consortium never intended to have a traditionallycomprehensive collection from Overdrive.We have emphasized what was new and/or popular.If it circulates well in print, then it will probably do wellin digital format.If its in the media, then it will circulate. 16. How Does That Work inTheory ? Check both the New York Times & USAToday bestseller lists weekly. Look at the holds lists for our print books. Scan the media to find out what our patronsare hearing about - - movie tie-ins, morningshow appearances etc. Local book club favorites, NPR features,Everyones Reading, etc. 17. The Realities of TodaysOverdrive* Out of the New York Times Bestseller List dated March18, 2012, only 5 of the top 14 titles were listed onOverdrive as e-books available for licensing. Out of the top 14 in the USA Today Best-Sellers forMarch 3, 2012, 4 e-books were available. (3 werelicensed for e-audio but not e-book format.) Penguins decision to drop OverDrive is huge. Random Houses pricing as of March 1st also has hadenormous ramifications.* and others as well. 18. Budget-Wise Approach to Purchasing If you or your consortium can afford it, purchase in largequantities if publishers are changing policies or pricing. Our consortium purchased several hundred titlesbefore Penguin stopped access. We also purchased older titles by popular authors andfilled in series for e-books published by Random Houseprior to March 1st. As an Advantage library, Plymouth also took these sameactions on a local basis. 19. Buying Pre-Pub Titles Purchasing e-books before they are published will putthem on the site early. This leads to lots of holds before the title is releasedand will trigger the Holds Management System if youhave one in place. Analysis has showed that we ended up purchasingmore copies if they appeared pre-pub than if we putthem on the site when they are actually released. 20. Viewing Reports is Key to Successin Budgeting Using the ContentReserve site in OverDrive is essential if you want to find out what your patrons are reading. Stay up to date on holds ratios. Find out the most popular genres in your community. See which authors are checked out most frequently. Discover which format of e-titles are most popular. 21. What We Discovered in theStatistics By far, ROMANCE is the most popular genre among ourpatrons. Patrons checked out e-books that we didnt own in ourlibrary in print format. Most of these were not best-selling authors, but big in romance paperback. Patrons were just as likely to read an older book by agiven author as they were the latest release. Fiction titles were in much greater demand than non-fiction with the exception of those in national news.(biographies, politics, current events) 22. Using Statistics Helped Save Money Happily, romance books tend to be more reasonablypriced than most best-sellers. Felt more comfortable purchasing older titles bypopular authors at a lower price. Took a chance on buying e-books on sale in genres weknow have been popular ie: Amish series fromThomas Nelson. By closely monitoring holds ratios, we can betterdetermine when to purchase additional copies ofpopular books. (Our automatic purchasing of holds wasdiscontinued after Random House raised prices.) 23. Taking Additional StepsAs a consortium in OverDrive, encourage member libraries tobecome Advantage Libraries. This can cut down on the numberof duplicate copies of best-sellers needed on a consortium level.If you are an Advantage Library, seek funds from local sourcessuch as the Friends group since only local patrons benefit.Put a separate line item in your annual budgets for e-books. 24. Paying for Your E-bookCollectionLook to local groups such as your Friends of the Libraryor local civic organizations such as the Lions Club. Apply for an LSTA grant. (Oregon Digital Library received$100,000 for their statewide e-book program.)Seek out grants from other regional sources. (IndianapolisPublic Library received $100,000 from the IndianapolisFoundations The Library Fund to add 5,800 downloadable e-books to their existing collection.) 25. Still Dont Have the Funds for E-books - Try this Provide links on your web site to places that provide freeor low-cost e-books. Smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/Discover Great E-books from Indie Authors and Publishers Google Books http://books.google.comIn Google Play, you can choose books by price or free. ManyBooks http://manybooks.netMost of these books are taken from Project Gutenberg, public domain,or creative commons, but are presented in an appealing format. 26. Project Gutenberg Free E-books Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ 27. Variety of Formats forDownloading 28. Colorado LibraryConsortiumhttp://www.clicweb.org/e-discover-home 29. Instructions on Importing MARC records for your catalog 30. Wrapping It Up Selecting an e-book platform depends, to a largeextent, on the size of your budget. Joining a consortium may be the best option for buyingpower, but you give up individual control of thecollection. Developing a collection philosophy is essential forbudgeting purposes. Keeping a close eye on your statistics helps stretch yourdollars. There are free resources to consider if funding is notavailable for a commercial collection. 31. Time for Questions & CommentsThanks for attending today!