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OverDrive Policies

HomeOverDrive Policies

an iphone, mac book, and ipad are displayed, each showing the overdrive app on the screenOverDrive Policies

Last updated June, 2021

  • Natrona County is the administering library.
  • Most of the policies/decisions have been in place since the beginning of the consortia. However, it may be that at some point the group will want to reevaluate policy choices such as how many titles patrons can have, length of circulation periods, or future choices that Overdrive may provide that will require decisions.
    On any decision that needs to be made each member library system will have 1 vote. UW and the WSL each have 1 vote. (Community Colleges are coming in under the UW contract at no cost and do not have a vote)
  • In the event that Natrona County Public Library System were to leave the consortia a new Administering Library would have to be chosen. This would be done by vote of the remaining members.
    Each member library will have full access to the Marketplace functions. Member libraries will control access of their own staff if they want to restrict access to certain functions. (For example if you only want to allow some staff access to create support tickets)
  • Public Library Connect enables the school community to directly access the Overdrive digital collection via the SORA app. Public libraries don’t have to do anything if a school district is interested, they will work with Overdrive directly. The students will have access to all Virtual Library content – any restrictions of content is done by the SCHOOL DISTRICT. This is available for all Wyoming school districts, however currently only Albany, Campbell, and Goshen county school districts have taken advantage of these.

Italicized information notes that other options were available, but the italicized is what the group is using at this time.

  • Number of items allowed to be checked out 10 titles at a time
  • Number of holds allowed 10 holds at a time
  • Recommend to Library (RTL) – RTL allows patrons to recommend a title for consideration of purchase. Through this process if a title is then purchased, the item is automatically placed on hold for the patron.
    • Current number of titles allowed for this is: 3 recommendations every 7 days
    • Not all RTL titles will be able to be purchased (budget, demand, and sales models play into those decisions) I regularly run a list and look for titles that have been recommended multiple times as my first “go to” for purchasing recommended titles.
  • Patron access to Overdrive use: (blocked cards in Workflows no access at this time)
  • Circulation time period: ebooks; eaudios; videos
    • Videos 7 days
    • eBooks, eAudio 14 days
  • Amount of money spent at the consortia level (which was heavily discussed with the current members and the majority of the group was adamant that we not impose a minimum higher than the minimum Overdrive has set. Current decision is that each member library spends at least the minimum content set by Overdrive at the consortia level. Each member can spend as much over that on the Consortia as they want/are able to. Natrona commits to purchase at least $35,000 annually at the consortia level, though typically spends at least twice that much.
  • Purchasing models: Often there is only one purchasing model available. But more and more publishers are offering multiple choices. It is up to the library purchasing the title to choose the sales model (one copy/one user; metered by time or number; simultaneous metered use). The consortia will not dictate which model a selector must choose.
  • Holds
    • Ratio goal (Current goal is 8:1; however we are running 10:1 or less). Our current average waiting time is 17.01 days. The average waiting time for some of our peer groups is 26.22 days
    • We are able to run reports and generate numbers to see which county has patrons on hold for titles. Currently if we need a title we just put a call out that we need some more copies if anyone is looking for titles to purchase.
    • Currently all libraries work together towards the holds goals. Libraries in the consortia need to be prepared to buy additional copies of high-demand titles based on the circulation and holds data.
  • Advantage Plus (an option under the Advantage account)– A library must have an Advantage account to enable the Advantage Plus option.
    • The consortia has the SHARE option enabled for those with Advantage and enabling the Advantage Plus option. This model allows the sharing of titles, allowing their patrons priority on the holds, while retaining ownership of the titles.
    • It is the desire that all libraries who purchase at the Advantage level, do so with the Advantage Plus sharing option enabled. To do this log into your advantage account and then go to ADMIN and then Advantage Plus to “opt in” (contact Rob Rando if you need to do this and are unable to access that)
    • Currently these libraries are using the Advantage Plus option: Laramie, Natrona, Niobrara, Sheridan, Teton, University of Wyoming, and the WSL).

Helpful information

Support
  • It is possible to create user log in with access to only the support- it is recommended that frontline staff who regularly help troubleshoot/help patrons have access or know who has the access to the support function.
  • Marketplace support is one of the best places to start for Support. They monitor support 24 hours/day. https://marketplace.overdrive.com/Support
  • Common issues covered in the support portal:
    • Merging user IDs
    • Returning titles (sometimes it just gets “hung up” and we need to manually help with this)
    • Marketplace Help
    • Libby Help
    • Technical Support (end users, issues in marketplace, etc.)
    • Invoicing Support
    • Authentication Support
Curated Displays
  • We are able to create/manage curated displays. These displays show on the Virtual Library website and show on the Libby App. The Libby App often has Spotlight lists. Those lists are pushed from Overdrive. The Librarian’s List and Generated Lists are the ones they pull from the Virtual Library Website.
  • Curated lists can be displayed in the following places:
  • The ebook, audiobook, and video collection pages are currently automatically populated displays that Overdrive places as default.
  • The main page curated display currently has the comic books featured along with one or two other specific displays. We can change the order these are published, add, and remove the various curated displays.
  • Curated displays can be automatic based on criteria “new audiobooks, new ebooks, etc.” that will change as the collection changes and time moves forward. They can also be curated by specific titles (generally thematic).
  • The lists on Libby don’t always show our curated lists in the order seen on our webpage. Often it’s the first list and then some of the Overdrive’s Generated lists and then our lists mixed in. We have less control on the App.
  • Currently just a few people have done the curated lists, but with more people interested in participating, we may want to set up a schedule for at least the top list – we’ll look more into that in July or August of 2021.
Weeding

Weeding permissions in Marketplace means a user can weed/unweed a title. Overdrive’s suggestion is to allow multiple admins to have weeding permissions.

Most of the titles that are weeded are metered access (MA) that have expired, however r it could be a one copy/one use title that for some reason we don’t want to show in the catalog (like the one copy of a title years ago that was purchased and was a very obscure language and patrons didn’t realize it until they checked it out and got complaints).

Currently, the Virtual Library of WY’s weeding plan is set up to automatically weed/remove expired MA Titles that have 0 holds. Overdrive’s advice is to weed expired MA titles unless we are planning on repurchasing them. Otherwise, a title would collect holds and not circulate and then annoy patrons.

I (Natrona County) regularly monitor the holds and if an item has holds and has expired MA, I either repurchase it or remove the hold and weed the title so it doesn’t show up on the patron side. We can’t always afford to replace and don’t always want to replace expired MA titles, so it makes sense to have them not available for patrons to see. (Anyone with the user rights to access holds and weedings can do this and I can show you how if you are interested and don’t know how.)

If you are trying to purchase a title that says “weeded” it is possible to “unweed” it which allows for purchasing it if your user rights allow it.

If your user rights allow it, click on the word weeded and you will get a popup that looks like this:

Click on “UNWEED TITLE” – after it finishes unweeding you can purchase it.