Last updated on June 7, 2019
The OverDrive Collection Guidelines articulate the unique challenges and purposes of the Oil Creek District’s OverDrive collection. The collection is still subject to the Collection Development Guidelines and only defines those aspects which require more detailed guidance than the general guidelines.
Purpose
The OverDrive collection is curated to provide digital books and audiobooks to support the recreational reading needs of the residents of the Oil Creek District.
Selection
The District strives to provide access to the greatest number of quality materials possible to serve the over 130,000 residents in our service area. We work in tandem with our local libraries and place a higher emphasis on titles unlikely to be purchased by them. Higher emphasis will be placed on titles that meet the needs of underserved populations. We regularly review usage statistics and patron recommendations to serve current needs and direct future purchases.
Digital collections face unique challenges to curation; namely that the content is licensed, not owned, by the District. Publishers allow libraries to purchase content under models ranging from metered licenses (allowing a certain number of checkouts or a certain length of time) to purchase costs being 5-6 times higher than retail to not allowing libraries to lend titles at all.
With these restrictions in mind, the focus of the collection will be on current titles in both e-books and digital audiobooks. Purchasing multiple copies, filling author backlists, and owning completed series will not be a priority.
Recommendations
We welcome patron recommendations through either the Recommend to Library feature on the OverDrive site or via our contact forms. Patron recommendations will be reviewed based on the popularity across the District, not at any branch. Though a specific title may not fall under the purchasing guidelines, recommendations will help drive our balance of genres and formats.
The District is currently not able to provide individualized feedback on the reasons why a title was or was not selected for inclusion in the collection.
Approved September 20, 2017