July 1, 2016

Question

Megan Schulz (KS)

Hopefully, my suggestion is how other states handle this situation as your question has been my question, in the past.

In Kansas, we have a statewide downloadable collection and every library in the state reports (actually I pre-populate part of the answer on their behalf) the same total number available, regardless if they contributed to the cost or not. There is also a separate consortium that some libraries have chosen to join and all of those libraries report the same number also, though not every library contributes the same amount towards the collection.

Basically, I think especially with recent clarifications to the definition, the number reported is “what patrons have access to” and not what the library purchased for the greater good.

Thanks,

SDC Comments

Terry Blauvelt (MO)

I report “what patrons have access to” like Megan. I had to request the data this year (2016 PLS) as OverDrive took the collection report off of my dashboard.

Amy Heebner (NY)

We do the same in NY. 

Kristen Stehel (UT)

In Utah, we also do what Terry and Megan do. Each individual library is encouraged to add their own purchased e-materials to the total.

Scott Dermont (IA)

We have a large e-book/downloadable audio consortium in Iowa and I have them count what they have access to. So, if there are 10,000 e-books in the collection, they each count 10,000. I do ask that they also count anything that they pay for above and beyond the consortium.

Megan Schulz (KS)

Also, IMLS (and hopefully no one else) doesn’t total up all of the totals for this question for the libraries in your state and use that figure anywhere to “show” the total number of ebooks available in your state. So that helps because otherwise it would be totally incorrect and misleading.

Hope that makes sense.

Jamie Mott (IL)

Illinois allows them to count anything they license, including consortially licensed content.

Regarding e-resources, I am mid survey and after our discussions have told libraries that they can count the items they purchased through Hoopla, but not all of Hoopla.  It’s almost as much arguing as when we told them not to count it at all.  I just had to tell the last one that if she couldn’t give numbers per the definition, I’d mark them all as “unknown.”  I swear by the time they all put in what they want or what they think the definition includes, the numbers mean almost nothing. 

End of rant.

Terry Blauvelt (MO)

We count Ebrary, Freading, and Hoopla as one use=one collection. I think I got that from Sam in Nebraska. We break down e-books into three questions.

7.14a Library Held E-Books

7.14b Consortia Held E-Books

7.14c Non-library Held E-books (Ebrary, Freading, and Hoopla)

These are added together for IMLS reporting, but the only real number is 7.14a. The other two are used to meet the definition, but generate unusable numbers.