Resource Sharing

Sharing Ebooks, Audiobooks, and Magazines Among Academic Libraries

The New York Academic OverDrive Joint Collection was created to provide academic institutions in New York State with a larger and more affordable collection of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines than they could build on their own. This model emphasizes pooling resources and sharing access equally among all participating campuses. The group is managed by Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN), a member of the Empire State Library Network (ESLN). 

Each school has control over what items they buy for the collection. Northern New York Library Network organizes three purchases per year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. Coordination of selections is limited to preventing unneeded duplication, and repurchasing any expiring titles with active holds (from account credits, i.e. all contribute credits for this purpose). New participating schools inherit access to all items in the collection. Departing institutions leave behind all content purchased during their participation. 

The current collection can be seen at https://nnyoverdrive.overdrive.com. The collection includes ebooks and audiobooks mostly geared toward recreational/popular reading, though no collection development policy prohibits the selection of other content. A magazine collection with around 5,000 titles is available for simultaneous use with no circulation caps. This content will be available to all participating academic libraries.

Participation

Colleges or universities with 22,000 student FTE or fewer that are members of their local library council shall be eligible to share in the joint collection. Any current OverDrive standalone system customer needs Overdrive’s permission to join the group.

Interested colleges should submit their intent to join to meg@nnyln.org by mid-July. This allows time for required forms to be submitted and authentication to be configured by the start of the term (Sept 1). Colleges may join mid-cycle for an added administrative fee of $200 and annual Overdrive fees shall be prorated.

Fees

Overdrive will charge Northern New York Library Network an annual fee for each participating school according to the table below. The Annual Participation Fee shall be based upon the full-time enrollment (FTE) of the school.

Annual Participation Fee

Sixty percent (60%) of the fee each year is allocated for the purchase of Digital Content for the shared collection.  A portion of these credits contribute to MARC records and to managing items in high demand, e.g. keeping hold ratios below 4:1 and re-purchasing expiring titles with active holds on them. Twenty percent (20%) contributes to the shared magazine collection of ~5,000 titles, all available for simultaneous use with no circulation caps. Finally, twenty percent (20%) of the annual fee is absorbed by Overdrive for configuration, system fees and maintenance. 

All items purchased get pooled with all the content bought by other participants maximizing the reach and impact of the collection. This means all users on all campuses have equal access to all titles, regardless of who selected the items. If a school wants to buy more content than the annual base amount, they can choose to add items to the flat pool of resources or to make those items “Advantage Plus,” giving their users priority access but still making the content available to others within the group. Basic Advantage accounts are not used because they lack sharing capabilities. Any funds added beyond the annual fee are applied 100% to content.  Content is available immediately after purchase. 

The Northern New York Library Network will send invoices to each participating school each fall and payment will be due within 30 days of receipt. A Participating College may select additional Digital Content subject to standard terms and pricing. Contact the NNYLN facilitator to purchase additional credits. 

Thanks for your interest! This is genuinely a good deal if it fits your library’s collection goals or strategy. Questions can be sent to meg@nnyln.org.