1. Stretching Your E-Book
Dollars
Kathy Petlewski
Electronic Resources Librarian
Plymouth District Library
mkp@plymouthlibrary.org

2. Today’s 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. Let’s start by taking a
poll!
How many of you already have an e-book
collection?
How many of you are considering an e-book
collection?
Don’t forget to press
“submit.”

4. Choices in E-Book Platforms
The Big Three
Overdrive
Axis 360
3M Cloud
(Baker &
Library
Taylor)

5. OverDrive (1986)
 650,000 premium digital titles from more than 1,000
publishers
 Serves 5,000 libraries, consortiums, schools, and colleges
worldwide
 Offers downloadable music, videos, e-audio books and e-
books in a variety of formats including Kindle compatible.
 Advantage Program allows individual members of
consortiums the ability to purchase digital materials just for
their own patrons.
 API’s coming in late April to better integrate OverDrive with
ILS systems.

6. 3M Cloud Library (2011)
 Currently in use at 10 beta sites with general release
installations 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 account
and seamless searching.
 3M E-Readers made for lending environments are
available 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 format
in a single ordering process.
 Uses the Blio ereader app. (text-to speech capabilities)
 198 publishers currently with about 112,000 titles but
new agreement with Smashwords will add
independently published authors and their works.
 Currently supports Windows, Android and IOS, but
PDF and EPUB formats will be supported by the end of
April. (no Kindle)
 107 libraries or library systems currently have signed
on, with 38 live as of March 2012.

8. Freading (2011)
 The ebook companion of Freegal – multiple users can
read simultaneously on pay-per-download model.
 Token system used with number of tokens needed
based on the publication date of book
 Over 20,000 titles available, but none from the Big Six
publishers.
 No MARC records and no ILS integration at this point.
 Books come in PDF and EPUB formats and may be
used with iPad, most Android-based tablets & phones,
Nook, Kobo, Sony and Kindle Fire.

9. Time for another short
poll !
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?
Don’t forget to press
“submit.”

10. To Join or Not to Join - That is the
Question
Is 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 the
Question
 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 is
one open for you to join. (Some are closed by OverDrive.)
 Ask your state’s library association.
 If you are already working with a
preferred vendor, ask them.
 Post to listservs in your area.

13. Creating Your Own Group
 Get the word out that you are establishing a
group by email, & regional meetings and ask for
participants.
 Notify your state library or consortium since they
may be able to provide expertise.
 Once you have enough libraries, meet to select a
platform or several platforms to investigate.
Request information and demonstrations from
these vendors and make your choice.
 Establish a collection development philosophy
you can live with.
 Set the pricing scheme and budget for the
opening 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 allocate
the funds.
 Set a holds ratio that fits with your general collection
policy.
 Select a person or group to do the actual purchasing.

15. The Storefront Approach
Our consortium never intended to have a traditionally
comprehensive collection from Overdrive.
We have emphasized what was new and/or popular.
If it circulates well in print, then it will probably do well
in digital format.
If it’s in the media, then it will circulate.

16. How Does That Work in
Theory ?
 Check both the New York Times & USA
Today bestseller lists weekly.
 Look at the holds lists for our print books.
 Scan the media to find out what our patrons
are hearing about - - movie tie-ins, morning
show appearances etc.
 Local book club favorites, NPR features,
Everyone’s Reading, etc.

17. The Realities of Today’s
Overdrive*
 Out of the New York Times Bestseller List dated March
18, 2012, only 5 of the top 14 titles were listed on
Overdrive as e-books available for licensing.
 Out of the top 14 in the USA Today Best-Sellers for
March 3, 2012, 4 e-books were available. (3 were
licensed for e-audio but not e-book format.)
 Penguin’s decision to drop OverDrive is huge.
 Random House’s pricing as of March 1st also has had
enormous ramifications.
* and others as well.

18. Budget-Wise Approach to
Purchasing
 If you or your consortium can afford it, purchase in large
quantities if publishers are changing policies or pricing.
 Our consortium purchased several hundred titles
before Penguin stopped access.
 We also purchased older titles by popular authors and
filled in series for e-books published by Random House
prior to March 1st.
 As an Advantage library, Plymouth also took these same
actions on a local basis.

19. Buying Pre-Pub Titles
 Purchasing e-books before they are published will put
them on the site early.
 This leads to lots of holds before the title is released
and will trigger the Holds Management System if you
have one in place.
 Analysis has showed that we ended up purchasing
more copies if they appeared pre-pub than if we put
them on the site when they are actually released.

20. Viewing Reports is Key to Success
in 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 the
Statistics
 By far, ROMANCE is the most popular genre among our
patrons.
 Patrons checked out e-books that we didn’t own in our
library 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 a
given 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 reasonably
priced than most best-sellers.
 Felt more comfortable purchasing older titles by
popular authors at a lower price.
 Took a chance on buying e-books on sale in genres we
know have been popular – ie: Amish series from
Thomas Nelson.
 By closely monitoring holds ratios, we can better
determine when to purchase additional copies of
popular books. (Our automatic purchasing of holds was
discontinued after Random House raised prices.)

23. Taking Additional Steps
As a consortium in OverDrive, encourage member libraries to
become Advantage Libraries. This can cut down on the number
of duplicate copies of best-sellers needed on a consortium level.
If you are an “Advantage Library,” seek funds from local sources
such 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-book
Collection
Look to local groups such as your Friends of the Library
or local civic organizations such as the Lion’s 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. (Indianapolis
Public Library received $100,000 from the Indianapolis
Foundation’s The Library Fund to add 5,800 downloadable e-
books to their existing collection.)

25. Still Don’t Have the Funds
for
E-books - Try this…
 Provide links on your web site to places that provide free
or low-cost e-books.
 Smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/
“Discover Great E-books from Indie Authors and Publishers”
 Google Books – http://books.google.com
In Google Play, you can choose books by price – or free.
 ManyBooks – http://manybooks.net
Most 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 for
Downloading

28. Colorado Library
Consortium
http://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 large
extent, on the size of your budget.
 Joining a consortium may be the best option for buying
power, but you give up individual control of the
collection.
 Developing a collection philosophy is essential for
budgeting purposes.
 Keeping a close eye on your statistics helps stretch your
dollars.
 There are free resources to consider if funding is not
available for a commercial collection.

31. Time for Questions &
Comments
Thanks for attending today!