Library dropped Overdrive for 3M. You could be next!

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jehane

Duckie, the State Library of Ohio lets you join online. The Ohio address they send the card to is the proof of residency. They were in the Ohio digital library consortium so only useful if your county leaves that one.

Aye, thanks. I will keep that in mind incase my county drops out of the consortium.

[disconnected]

I just saw this article about 3M updating their patron app --

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1562...anced-browsing

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by disconnected

I just saw this article about 3M updating their patron app --

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1562...anced-browsing

They've added audiobooks.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by disconnected

I just saw this article about 3M updating their patron app --
http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1562...r /> browsing

This is the app version that I think is a mess! I wonder how bad it was before. When you search or browse, ebooks and audiobooks are grouped together! It doesn't let you filter either/or within the mobile app although you can on the website version. And when it says you can filter by favorites it means you can star an entire genre like history or thrillers. I want to be able to star an individual book to create a wishlist like Overdrive and Axis 360 can do. These seem to be basic features that are missing. I don't think my expectations are unreasonable for ease of use of the app.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I am positively livid today. I just discovered that my library has unexpectedly and without warning or public input dropped Overdrive in favor of 3M! Ugh!

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone use 3M that can offer any postive input to make me less depressed? Is there any reason to like 3M over Overdrive?

My library was one of the early adopters of ebooks. I had access to over 70,000 ebooks and one of the largest Overdrive libraries in the US. The library had the audacity to put out a public statement that says they thought very hard about their decision to drop Overdrive. They believe that 3M offers more choices and less wait times. They are very excited about their collection of 3500 books.

Seriously! We went from 70,000 books to 3,500 books. Bye bye Kindle or Sony/Nook borrowing and now you have to read via a tablet app. I can't find anything to borrow because the selection is so poor that anything decent has waits now. All of this is better how?

Did I mention how angry I am?

Wow that's alot of wasted money! If I was a tax payer there I would be furious. 70,000 books licensed is not cheap and to just throw it all away makes no sense to lose that much money.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Wow that's alot of wasted money! If I was a tax payer there I would be furious. 70,000 books licensed is not cheap and to just throw it all away makes no sense to lose that much money.

Well my library was part of a large consortium so who knows how the costs were shared amongst the members. Most of the cost was probably an annual maintenance fee. I expect the 3M catalog is a lot cheaper than the Overdrice subscription and so they are probably saving expenses as one of their motivations to switch.

[Catlady]

At my library the existing Overdrive books are still available; new acquisitions are through Axis 360. I can't imagine the library just ditching all the thousands of Overdrive books.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Catlady

At my library the existing Overdrive books are still available; new acquisitions are through Axis 360. I can't imagine the library just ditching all the thousands of Overdrive books.

Exactly, specially all those expensive Random House and Harpercollins titles. Either the library only pays a fee to access it from another library who buys the books or they just wasted alot of money.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Exactly, specially all those expensive Random House and Harpercollins titles. Either the library only pays a fee to access it from another library who buys the books or they just wasted alot of money.

As I understand it, there are two fees. There is a fee for the overdrive software/use/participating. Then there is a fee for each book. The number of times a book can be checked out varies as does the expiration of the license. Some books "expire" after 12 months and have to be repurchased/re-leased. The prices of books vary quite widely as well. From what I understand if a book is "shared" across a consortium, they pay for the book as if it is one library (but it can only be checked out by one patron at a time).

[Bookworm_Girl]

From the research I've done in the last week, many cities are only signing two or three year contracts with their content providers. I expect more volatility in the future for other people too. I was also surprised to discover that ebooks make up less than 5% of the circulation rate for many libraries.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

As I understand it, there are two fees. There is a fee for the overdrive software/use/participating. Then there is a fee for each book. The number of times a book can be checked out varies as does the expiration of the license. Some books "expire" after 12 months and have to be repurchased/re-leased. The prices of books vary quite widely as well. From what I understand if a book is "shared" across a consortium, they pay for the book as if it is one library (but it can only be checked out by one patron at a time).

I was able to find lots of info on the other city that dropped from the consortium and went on their own with Overdrive. They are paying $15k per year which includes a content credit of $5K towards digital purchases. By comparison, Baker & Taylor is charging them $4K per year. These fees are less than I expected.

The Overdrive proposal lists several lending methods.

• one title / one user
• simultaneous use on an annual subscription in bundles of 25, 50, 75 and 100
• metered access (circulation limits before the title must be repurchased)
• duration access (after a set time period the title must be repurchased)

It says that pricing is up to the publishers. It also says that Overdrive runs sales throughout the year for "various titles and formats in conjunction with the publishers."

Originally Posted by Blossom

Exactly, specially all those expensive Random House and Harpercollins titles. Either the library only pays a fee to access it from another library who buys the books or they just wasted alot of money.

My library was part of a consortium. It's not like they purchased 70,000 titles on their own that they abandoned. Who knows how the costs were shared. I live in a suburb. The biggest city in the consortium has a number of cardholders and library budget about 5 times my city. I hope each member of the consortium wasn't paying an equal slice of the fees and it was proportional to use. I think it's highly likely that there was a financial benefit to my city and the other one that dropped out of the consortium to go solo.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Take them seriously on the purchase suggestion--that likely means they have a grant or money set aside to buy books! Ask for some books!

They were serious after all. 2 of the 3 books that I asked for purchase showed up in my holds lost today. It really did take only 1-2 days from recommendation to be available. Hopefully the last book shows up in Monday. That was the least obscure of the recommendations and a best-selling author.

Originally Posted by library addict

I have found them to be much longer. For example, one book showed it would be available in 108 days. Then I got an email stating it was available a week later.

In one day I dropped from like 41 days to 31 days wait on a book I put on hold! By logging into my library account (Polaris system) and not the 3M website, I was able to see that I am 6 out of 7 on the hold lists. Too bad they can't show you that within the 3M app.

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

2. This might be less a tip than a warning, but: When you reserve a book, they tell you the number of days until it becomes available. This estimate will be wildly inaccurate. Worse, for a long time, there was no email notification when the book become available, so it was almost impossible to pick up a reserve. One reason I mention this is that the two 3M collections I use started email notifications at different times. There could be a risk that a new collection won't have email configured.

I got an email notification that the two books I recommended for purchase were available so emails seem to be working!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Catlady

At my library the existing Overdrive books are still available; new acquisitions are through Axis 360. I can't imagine the library just ditching all the thousands of Overdrive books.

Based on the lending options that I listed in my other posts, I would guess that your library's Overdrive catalog will start shrinking as time and circulation limits means that books are no longer available and your library will not be repurchasing them.

[disconnected]

If I remember correctly, the Kansas state library system was a very early Overdrive adopter and their contract specified that if they were to not renew they would keep all the books they had purchased. I think there was also some vague mention of Overdrive helping Kansas with the transition. (This was before some books had limits of time or number of loans).

When the contract came up for renewal, Overdrive had raised their fees by some order of magnitude, and the clause about Kansas being able to keep books after the relationship ended had not made it into the new contract. Those two things led Kansas to not renew.

Because of the wording of the original contract I think Kansas was able to retain all of their books but I don't know if library systems that signed newer contracts had that option.

There were a lot of news articles about it at the time but it was a while back so I may not be remembering it all correctly.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by disconnected

If I remember correctly, the Kansas state library system was a very early Overdrive adopter and their contract specified that if they were to not renew they would keep all the books they had purchased. I think there was also some vague mention of Overdrive helping Kansas with the transition. (This was before some books had limits of time or number of loans).

When the contract came up for renewal, Overdrive had raised their fees by some order of magnitude, and the clause about Kansas being able to keep books after the relationship ended had not made it into the new contract. Those two things led Kansas to not renew.

Because of the wording of the original contract I think Kansas was able to retain all of their books but I don't know if library systems that signed newer contracts had that option.

There were a lot of news articles about it at the time but it was a while back so I may not be remembering it all correctly.

I believe you are right in that some early contracts were a purchase once, keep books. Smashwords does have some library systems that work this way when libraries purchase books from Smash. I believe at least two of the library systems work in this manner--even if I pull my books from Smash for some reason, those books remain available at the libraries that purchased them. Overdrive is not one of the participating systems. I think it might be Baker and Axis, but I'd have to go look at the spreadsheet (and will if anyone cares to know.)

[Bookworm_Girl]

The Baker & Taylor agreement with the other city says an eBook or audiobook acquisition is considered a purchase. At termination they will help the library transfer books to another verified vendor subject to publisher licenses. They give HarperCollins and Macmillan as examples of restrictions.

The Overdrive agreement with the other city says they work with the library to facilitate the appropriate course of action with the books subject to publisher license agreements. It references a terms and conditions document that isn't attached.