2018 Overdrive Selection Guidelines UHLS econtent Advisory Committee

Transcription

1 2018 Overdrive Selection Guidelines UHLS econtent Advisory Committee Table of Contents: 1. Introduction Selection Basics: Nuts and Bolts 2. Formats and Compatible Devices 3. Purchase Models and Licenses 4. Carts 5. Purchasing Recommended to Library (RTL) Titles Selection Basics: Wear Your elibrarian Hat 6. Statistics 7. Subject Analysis 8. Pro Tips & Selection Strategies 9. Marketplace Search and Browse Advanced Selection Skills 10. Purchasing Holds 11. Purchasing Expiring Metered Access Titles 1. Introduction The econtent Advisory Committee was created by UHLS and the Director s Association in It meets at least quarterly to discuss ongoing issues, changes in the econtent environment, and questions related to the UHLS OverDrive collection. The committee makes recommendations to UHLS and the Director's Association as appropriate. The committee created these OverDrive selection procedures and guidelines, and reviews and updates them annually. The UHLS OverDrive collection is cooperatively developed and is funded in part by NYS Central Library grants and our member libraries. The Director s Association reviews member libraries and the Central Library s total expenditures monthly. These guidelines are an outline of formats, purchase models and licenses, and best practices in OverDrive Marketplace, a platform that is frequently updated. Please contact Deanna DiCarlo at UHLS at (518) ext 225 or deanna.dicarlo@uhls.lib.ny.us with any questions or suggestions about these guidelines, or to set up a new selector account at marketplace.overdrive.com. 1

2 Selection Basics: Nuts & Bolts Every selector should familiarize themselves with the following basic information about formats, purchase models, carts, and patron recommendations. 2. Formats and Compatible Devices Available OverDrive formats are ebooks, audiobooks, and streaming video. Note that video is not available in the OverDrive research and development project, the Libby App (launched in 2017). Each format s file types and compatible devices are: Ebook Formats Kindle: Kindle devices or any device with Kindle app EPUB: OverDrive App, non-kindle ereaders, computers using Adobe Digital Editions PDF: OverDrive App, non-kindle ereaders, computers using Adobe Digital Editions ecac Recommendation: Don t purchase PDF-only titles. They do not circulate well and often end up not being compatible. OverDrive Read: No download necessary. Read in compatible device or desktop browsers, including the Libby App. Audiobook Formats MP3: OverDrive app or OverDrive computer software to transfer to an MP3 player OverDrive Listen: Listen in compatible device or desktop browsers, including the Libby App. Streaming Video Formats Streaming Video: OverDrive app or view in browser 3. Purchase Models and Licenses Even more important than understanding formats, the various purchase models and licenses should be clear in the minds of all selectors. Some content we buy will always be in the collection unless we weed it, but in many cases, content will expire and need to be repurchased (even if there are holds on the item). Please keep this in mind when you purchase metered content it is the responsibility of all selectors to buy wisely. ebook Licences One Copy/One User (OC/OU): In collection until/unless weeded Metered Access per Checkout (MA): In collection until a certain amount of checkouts or licenses and then expired. (e.g., HarperCollins: 26 checkouts; Macmillan: 52 checkouts or 24 months, whichever comes first) Metered Access by Timeframe (MA): In collection for a given period of time and then expired. (e.g., Simon & Schuster: 12 months; Macmillan: 52 checkouts or 24 months, whichever comes first). ecac Recommendation: Purchase these titles when we anticipate very a high demand (e.g., best sellers). For backlist and series holes, select prudently (or not at all). 2

3 Audiobooks Licenses: One Copy/ One User (OC/OU): In collection until/unless weeded Exception: Harry Potter Audio Metered for 5 years (60 months) Streaming Video Licenses One Copy/ One User (OC/OU): In collection until/unless weeded 4. Carts Member library carts: Shared Interface: Please note that Marketplace is a shared interface please do not edit/delete other selectors carts. If you delete a cart from your login, it deletes that cart for everyone. Order Promptly: Titles that are placed in carts should be ordered promptly, since they will appear as pending to any other selector. Naming convention: ecac recommends using the following convention when creating carts in Marketplace: (UHLS Code)(Month/Year)(Optional Internal Identifier). Example: ALTM Oct17 Audio Internal PO: Libraries with multiple selectors may wish to copy the cart name into the Internal purchase order ID for invoice purposes (IE, this will show up on the invoice): PO ALTMOct17 Shared UHLS Nonfiction Cart Central selectors will make every effort to purchase the amount of adult non-fiction indicated in the Central Library budget. Because Central Library funds can only be spent on adult nonfiction, member libraries are encouraged to add their adult nonfiction selections to the UHLS Shared Nonfiction cart (please only add titles that meet these selection guidelines). The CL will purchase from this cart at least once a month as the budget allows. 3

4 5. Recommend to Library (RTL) Titles The public facing site allows patrons to recommend titles for purchase: Each member library is responsible for purchasing their own recommendations as their budget and selection judgement allows. ecac recommends running the RTL report monthly (but if you don t, ecac recommends running it with a time period set from the last time you ran it). Here s how: 1. Go to insights >reports: 2. Select Recommendations under Collection Usage. 3. Click Run New Report. 4. Set report parameters. In this example, the report will show titles recommended by Berlin patrons in the last month: 4

5 5. The results will display; you can click each title to view the item, or click the number of recommendations to see the date it was requested and if a hold was placed (if purchased). You can also convert this report to a cart. 6. Be sure to double check that the item has not been purchased since it was recommend (multiple branches can request the same item, and patrons often request popular items before their street date). As with metered access purchases, use your best judgement as a collection development professional when selecting recommended titles. Selection Basics: Wear Your elibrarian Hat 6. Statistics Member Library Stats: UHLS keeps track of member library spending and reports monthly to the Director s Association. UHLS provides quarterly reports on OverDrive circulation for each library to the Director s Association. UHLS will work with directors and the Central Library on the NYS annual report, but does not keep monthly stats on the number of items purchased per format and audience, etc. Running a Circulation Report One tool in your arsenal is the Circulation Report, which gives you a sense of how our selections are performing. Here s how: 1. Go to insights >reports: 2. Select Circulation Activity under Collection Usage. 3. Click Run New Report. 5

6 4. Set report parameters. In this example, the report will show Adult Nonfiction titles circulated to East Greenbush cardholders in 2017 (the results were 4,876). If we run the same report for all audiences, East Greenbush s total circulation for 2017 was 27,829. With both of these results, we can see that Adult Nonfiction was 17.5% over overall circulation at East Greenbush in Play around with various subjects, audiences, formats, time frames, etc. and you will get an overall picture of how your cardholders are using OverDrive, and this will help guide selection. 7. Subject Analysis UHLS and the econtent Advisory Committee uses the Circulation Activity report described in Section 6 to conduct periodic collection analyses to determine what circulates and what does not circulate. The committee continues to find that what circulates well in print does not necessarily circulate well in digital format, especially regarding nonfiction. In 2017: 6

7 Please keep in mind the above and what follows is a general guide all selectors should familiarize themselves with the collection usage reports and the public facing site to stay on top of trends. For example, audiobooks have risen in popularity to 1/3 of overall circulation over the past couple of years because of ease of use in the OverDrive app, and nonfiction audiobook use is on the rise for adults. Adult Fiction Both adult literary fiction and genre fiction circulate well and reflect the highest category of OverDrive circulation. Popular fiction categories remained the same in 2017: 2017 Top Tier: Romance Thriller Literary Fiction Mystery Suspense Historical Fiction 2017 Middle Tier: Fantasy Humor Science Fiction Short Stories 2017 Lower Tier: Classic Literature Erotic Literature Horror Christian Fiction Western Adult Nonfiction Narrative nonfiction (biographies, history) circulates very well for adults. Non-narrative nonfiction (computer guides, grammar, reference, instructional/how-to) titles do not circulate well in digital format. Categories are closer to BISAC than Dewey, so use the public site to get a sense of each topic. Remember to use the shared nonfiction cart. Popular adult nonfiction categories in 2017: 2017 Top Tier: Biography & Autobiography History 2017 Middle Tier: Self-Improvement Business & Leadership Sociology (Think Humans of New York) Humor Politics 2017 Lower Tier: Religion & Spirituality Science (science narratives) Family & Relationships Psychology Military Health & Fitness Cooking & Food 7

8 Adult Nonfiction subjects that do NOT circulate well: Reference Science by Subject (Chemistry, Physics) Study Aids & Workbooks Business How To (resumes, etc.) Computer Guides Language Learning Grammar Pets Art Mathematics Adult Nonfiction types that do NOT circulate: For Dummies Books NOLO Guides Flash Cards and Cheat Sheets Cliffs Notes Anything in PDF only format Young Adult Fiction Young adult fiction circulates less than adult fiction (8% vs 65%). Keep in mind many adults also read YA. Some selectors argue that low YA fiction circs reflect poor selection and/or availability of quality content. More analysis is needed to drill down into these trends. Popular YA fiction categories: 2017 Top Tier: YA Literary Fantasy Romance Science Fiction Juvenile Fiction 2017 Middle Tier: Historical Fiction Mystery 2017 Lower Tier: Thriller Suspense Horror Folklore Juvenile fiction circulates similarly to YA at 7.75%). Some argue low J fiction circs reflect poor selection and/or availability of quality content. More analysis is needed to drill down into these trends Top Tier: Juvenile Literature Fantasy Humor 2017 Middle Tier: Mystery Comic & Graphic Books Historical Fiction 2017 Lower Tier: Picture Books Thriller Mythology Beginning Reader Science Fiction Classic Literature Thrller Suspense 8

9 Juvenile and Young Adult Nonfiction Juvenile and young adult nonfiction tends not to circulate (less than 1% combined). Some argue low J and YA nonfiction circs reflect poor selection and/or availability of quality content. More analysis is needed to drill down into these trends. The following top tiers represent a very small sample: 2017 Juvenile Nonfiction Top Tier: Biography & Autobiography History Nature 2017 Young Adult Nonfiction Top Tier: Biography & Autobiography History Sociology 8. Pro Tips/Selection Strategies Featured collections: Keep an eye out for UHLS featured collection s to learn what s new on the public facing site. As you grow more familiar with the collection, feel free to suggest featured collection ideas bear in mind, they function like a virtual display and run for two or three weeks. Theses collections and the New collections are a good way to gain a sense of what moves and what doesn t. Backlist titles: Be wary of metered access by timeframe purchase models for backlist titles and series holes. If a new movie is being produced based on an older book, or if a title is on a school reading list, or if a title experiences renewed popularity based on current events, by all means purchase it for a 12-month license. Otherwise, please use your best judgement as a collection development professional. Visually Driven: OverDrive circ is very visually driven. A good book jacket beats a plain one. Check recent purchases: Analyze what went out and what did not each week. We shoot for 85-90% of new purchases to circulate if they don t, try to assess why. This analysis will give you a good grasp of what is being purchased across the system and what goes out. Here s how: In public catalog, go to Advanced Search and select Last 7 days under Dates added, and filter results by Available now. In this example, only 3 out of 92 titles are still available, or approximately 97% are out, so great job! 9

10 Finding Quality Content: OverDrive Marketplaces s content selection has improved greatly in the past few years, and many quality titles are now available very close to their print street date. Use the same selection criteria you would use when purchasing print materials. In addition to trade journals like Library Journal, School Library Journal, Booklist, Publisher s Weekly, etc.: Consult popular best of and best seller lists in addition to New York Times NPR, People, USA Today, WSJ, etc. Select both award winners and finalists Obtain summer reading lists every spring Consult popular book enthusiast sources like: Amazon s Movers & Shakers BuzzFeed Books BookPage Book Riot GoodReads Choice Awards Early Word Indie Next List Publishers Weekly Libraries section Shelf-Awareness Check out Must Haves and Insights for titles not in collection (left side bar) Check out the Featured tab for Best of Marketplace for ideas (top menu) 10

11 7. Marketplace Searches Basic Search: Basic Search gives you quite a few options, including format, audience, subject, and publisher. Sort results descending by street date for most recent/upcoming titles or by popularity across libraries to see what circs well outside UHLS. Advanced Search: Advanced Search gives you a lot more filters, including ISBN, awards, price range, holds, and date added to our collection. Browse: Marketplace has browsable lists and sales on the homepage. If you click on a category, you will open a new page where you can apply filters like not in collection. 11

12 Advanced Selection Skills 10. Purchasing Holds In an ideal fiscal universe with unlimited funds, we would love to have only two holds for every copy. This, however, is not even remotely tenable. ecac recommends using the following ratios to determine how many copies to purchase to fulfill holds: Cost Recommended Ratio of Holds per 1Copy $0-25 4:1 $ :1 $ :1 $ :1 $ :1 $ :1 Over $150 22:1 For example, if an audiobook costs $70 and we own 2 copies, and there are 48 holds on that title, the consortium holds/copies ratio is 24:1 (or 48/2). The recommended ratio for a $70 item is 8:1, so we would need to purchase 4 additional copies to get that title down to an 8 copies per 1 hold Running a Current Waiting List Report 1. Go to insights > reports: 2. Select Current Waiting List under Collection Usage: 3. Click Run New Report to ensure you have the latest update: 4. Sort report by Consortium Ratio, Descending: 12

13 5. Scroll down (you will likely need to view several pages) to the first ratio above 4 and note the row number (in this example, it s line 454 with a consortium ratio): 6. Convert report to a cart, adding as many lines as you need to include the highest ratios through the 4:1 consortium ratios (in this example, it is 454): 7. Go to your new cart (You may have to indicate that you want to show titles if they are hidden because of the size of the cart). 8. You can now sort your cart and/or add and remove columns in a number of ways, depending on what holds you want to purchase (for example, young adult fiction). You can move all the titles in one category (audience, number of holds, price) into a new cart experiment with what will work for you based on your responsibilities and budget (Please note: the consortium ratio does not carry over into the cart we are working on asking OverDrive to add it). Alternative method: Like all reports, you can also convert the report to Excel and sort it. One you have whittled it down, you can copy and paste the ISBN column into an advanced search (up to 200 ISBNs at once) and add them to a new cart. 13

14 11. Purchasing Expiring Metered Access Titles Whenever we purchase content that is metered by time or checkouts, they eventually expire and will need to be repurchased if we want to keep them in the collection. In the past, this labor (analyzing and deciding whether or not to re-up a title) was completed by the Central Library. This labor has been completed by UHLS since Repurchase titles based upon your best judgement as a collection development professional. The goal is to offer a robust collection that will also be well used, and it does not have to function as an archive or mirror or what is physically on our shelves. Some content simply does not circulate well in digital format (even if we think it should). Metered Carts Rough Guide: Please note: there is no report for metered titles. Two types of metered carts are automatically generated every week and will appear in the shared carts interface (Less than 1 month and less than 5 checkouts): Less than 1 Month Less than 5 CKOs 1. Select a cart by type of metered license (or merge multiple weeks carts if need be. Pro Tip: Name the cart MeterCKOMerged or MeterTimeMerged. 2. Update all titles to 1 copy: 1. Metered Access with less than 1 month left: In general, a conservative estimate of expected checkouts per digital copy is 12 a year (or, once a month). Sort cart by Lending Model. You will see up to five types, and in all cases, there may be more than one copy currently owned be sure to check the last copy expires column): OC/OU MA: Earlier of 52 checkouts or 24 months MA: Earlier of 26 checkouts or 12 months MA: 12 months MA: 24 months If the cart is large, you may wish to divide these into separate carts (to retain your sanity). 14

15 Metered Access with less than 1 month left (Continued): OC/OU These are likely Penguin titles that were previously metered at 12 months, but are now OC/OU. Check if already owned. If not: Purchase if they have active holds. Otherwise, consider number of checkouts since date purchased, price, content, etc. MA: Earlier of 52/26 checkouts or 24/12 months Check if already owned to see if we can hold off if another copy is not expiring. If not: Purchase if there are active holds. If this kind of license is about to expire because its time is running out, consider how many checkouts since the date or purchase. For example, if we purchased a title in December of 2014 and it is about to expire in December of 2016 (24 months), but it only circulated 10 times in two years, consider not repurchasing it. The reverse is also a good gauge if it has circulated at least once a month for one or two years (12 or 24 times), it s a good bet to repurchase. Otherwise, consider number of checkouts since date purchased, price, quality of content, etc. The Title Status and Usage report is another tool to determine number of checkouts per license. MA: 12 or 24 months Check if already owned to see if we can hold off (if another copy is not expiring). If not: Purchase if there are active holds. Consider number of checkouts if it went out less than 12 or 24 times, consider not repurchasing it. Otherwise, consider number of checkouts since date purchased, price, content, etc. Sort the cart by Last copy expires. If we own more than one copy and another copy expires at a later date, do not repurchase. Note that the first copy bought date is to the left of this column. Otherwise, consider number of checkouts since date purchased, price, content, etc. 2. Metered Access with fewer than 5 checkouts left: Consider active holds and focus on 1-2 checkouts remaining: Sort carts by number of consortium checkouts remaining. Delete titles with 3-5 checkouts remaining they will appear in subsequent carts. Sort carts by current active holds and move to a new cart. Purchase these. Otherwise, consider number of checkouts since date purchased, price, content, etc. 15