Check Out the Latest News From OverDrive: Your Partner. Your Library. Forward Together.
The digital age is rapidly changing, and public libraries are continuously evolving in response. As your partner, we are also continuously evolving our services, features, and products to help you continue to meet the changing needs of your community. Here are some of the highlights we shared at PLA in our effort to assist our library partners achieve their goals of reaching more readers.
Updates to help you serve more readers for less
Designed to make managing your metered access content easier and more efficient, our new Metered Access Manager allows you to create customized plans based on specific criteria like format, price, language, checkouts remaining, and more! You can create as many plans as you’d like, view results on demand, manually build carts from plans, or choose to have cars carts created automatically.
Looking for cost-effective ways to maximize impact and serve more readers for less? Under the OverDrive MAX model (also known as Metered Access Concurrent Use or MACU), libraries can stock bundles of up to 100 loans for popular digital books with no expiration date. With each MAX title, the cost to serve each reader is typically the lowest available cost for libraries and schools for lending the ebook or audiobook.
With our new Patron Interests Dashboard, you can increase patron satisfaction and become the go-to resource for content discovery by helping your community find content NOT yet in your collection. Readers use Deep Search in Libby and can indicate titles of interest with the Notify Me tag. Your team can access real-time data for these tags in the Dashboard.
In 2023, 56 million OverDrive magazines were borrowed from digital libraries. That was a 75% increase over 2022, and for good reason: Sold as an all-in plan of over 4,000 titles, OverDrive Magazines have no circulation cap and allow unlimited simultaneous use access, so patrons can enjoy every issue of every magazine. This includes TIME Magazine, which has recently been added to the package! New features make it easier than ever for users to discover and engage with digital magazines from your library including streamlined access and the ability to subscribe to a title.
Amplify your brand in Libby with new customization tools
Leverage advanced curation tools, add your logo and colors to Libby, and add personal notes to specific titles with Shelf Talkers.
Have programs and initiatives you want to promote to Libby users? New Call-to-Action campaigns can be used to promote community reads, fundraising initiatives, and other special programs. In the coming months, you’ll be able to use new self-service tools to create featured title campaigns for book clubs and more.
There is a new way for users to access Libby Extras from your library! In addition to discovering Extras through the Libby app, users can now access Extras through new, optimized direct links to each of the services your library offers. These direct links provide an alternative method for your library to help users discover these services, including posting direct links on your library website, including direct links in social media posts promoting Libby Extras, and more!
Lights! Camera! Kanopy!
Each thoughtfully curated subscription Kanopy PLUS Pack provides your users with 250-300 unlimited use titles. Kanopy launched a new Documentaries PLUS Pack to go along with the other 6 packs including British Cinema and TV, Episodic Series, Easy Watching and others. These subscription packs are the most cost-effective way to provide your community with unlimited, simultaneous streaming video. Combining Kanopy PLUS Packs with the popular Kanopy Pay-Per-Use (PPU) model provides you with flexible options to best leverage your budget to meet demand.
Encourage the children in your community to watch, learn, and grow with Kanopy Kids. Access subscription pricing when you add Kanopy Kids to any PLUS Pack or PPU program. With over 2,000 films and growing, Kanopy Kids provides a wealth of streaming video content that is age-appropriate and safe for kids, including favorite characters and storybooks that encourage literacy and learning languages in a playful format for little ones.
Recently, Kanopy switched from credits to tickets to provide users with more clarity on viewing periods and how many tickets a title will use. In addition, based on librarian and user feedback, users from public libraries with a PPU platform now see a new “Tickets” filter as the top option in the “Filters” menu. This filter allows users to filter search results by how many tickets are required to watch a title.
Looking for more updates from Kanopy? Join us on Thursday, May 2, 2024 at 2:00 PM ET for our next Kanopy Town Hall for North American Public Libraries! Register here.
