NH Downloadable Audio Books Consortium

Slide 1: NH Downloadable Audio Books Consortium NHLA Conference Mt. Washington 17 May 2007

Slide 2: Purpose of This Presentation  To provide information about the New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Books Consortium.

Slide 3: Current Consortium Statistics  98 participating public libraries  1436 unique titles in the collection  1636 copies in the collection  50 always available titles in the collection  4680 active users  23,400 checkouts

Slide 4: First Round  The consortium launched on September 5, 2006 with 20 libraries and 815 titles in the collection.  During the first month, 1196 titles circulated and 822 people used the service.  500,000 people had access to the service though the initial 20 libraries of the consortium.

Slide 5: Second Round  A second round of 13 libraries launched on October 16, 2006.  An additional 130,000 individuals gained access to the service.  During the month of October, 681 people used the service for the first time.  1096 titles circulated during the month of October.

Slide 6: Third Round  A third round, consisting of 45 libraries, launched in February, 2007.  These 45 libraries serve 185,000 residents.  27 of the 45 libraries serve a population smaller than 2500 residents.  The annual consortium fee was significantly reduced for libraries serving a population smaller than 2500.

Slide 7: Fourth Round  On May 14, 2007, twenty more libraries started providing downloadable audio books to their patrons, extending the service to potentially another 120,000 individuals.  Of these twenty libraries, five serve small populations numbering less than 2500 residents, and twelve serve populations smaller than 5000.

Slide 8: Population Served Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total NH Total Number of 20 13 45 20 98 230 Libraries Population 500,000 130,000 185,000 120,000 930,000 1,309,940 Served http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/33000.html http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/lds/public_library_stats.html

Slide 9: General Consortium Success Tips  Using available grant money to pay for set-up fees made it possible for smaller libraries to join the consortium.  Designate an internal project manager to collect information, answer questions, and be a primary contact for the project.  Start small and work on expanding.  Positive word-of-mouth marketing to libraries.  Use state or federal funding to build the start-up collection.

Slide 10: Success Tips: Buying Audio Books  Start a volunteer selection committee to purchase titles.  The selection committee members should ideally be audio book listeners.  Rotate the committee members on occasion.  Only one person (the internal project manager) should have purchasing privileges.  Purchase a year-long subscription of always available titles.  For a well-rounded start-up collection, allocate money by genre/age, etc.  Determine a reserve rate for purchasing duplicate copies and adhere to it; plan to buy duplicates and new titles each week.

Slide 11: Success Tips: Librarian Resources  Start a blog to help disseminate information. (Encourage the librarians to subscribe to the blog via RSS or provide an email subscription.)  The blog will also serve as an excellent “knowledge base” of information.  Start a wiki to which the librarians can contribute their experiences with the players.  Post the OverDrive-provided promotional materials on a central Website for easy downloading and printing.  Encourage participating librarians to share their own promotional materials with each other.