If you are part of the academic library community in Michigan or Indiana and you’d like to learn more about a consortial approach to providing fiction and nonfiction eBook and audiobook titles to your patrons via OverDrive, we encourage you to attend the Consortium Connect webinar hosted by OverDrive on April 17 at 1 p.m. Eastern (noon Central).  Participants will be prospective libraries from any of OverDrive’s current academic consortia, including MCLS. 

Because libraries from many consortia and prospective new consortia will be in attendance, the webinar content will focus on information that is universal to all: value, expansive content, and shared access and workload. 

OverDrive will not be sharing contract fees or collection development strategies for any one group. However, if you would like more information about the MCLS group, OverDrive for Michigan & Indiana Academics, contact us at services@mcls.org. 

Webinar highlights include: 

• An introduction to OverDrive’s product and services.

• Benefits of participating in a consortium: Highlights the unique benefits and advantages of joining a consortium, including pooled budget resources to support a larger collection of titles, workload distribution to save time, access to resources, networking opportunities, and more.

• Success stories: Testimonials and success stories from existing members, including a guest speaker from an existing consortium. 

• Consortium structure overview: How contracts work, billing examples, purchasing, and an overview of the process of joining a consortium.

• Q&A portion: An opportunity for potential members to ask questions and learn more. 

OMIA members include community colleges, private colleges, and universities in Michigan and Indiana. The group collaboratively develops and manages a shared collection, the outcome of which is a larger collection of titles at a lower cost for participating libraries. Deb Shumaker, Director of Library Services & Tutoring at Kirtland Community College, shared that  

“the OMIA content is wide and varied which provides users with many more titles than what could be purchased as a stand-alone OverDrive library. I appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in the OMIA consortium to develop a wide-ranging collection for our users.”  

Amy Bryant, Library Director at Earlham College, echoed this and commented,  

“As a small liberal arts college, we value being able to stretch our budget to provide more resources to our patrons at the most affordable price-point. The resource sharing power of the OMIA consortia allows us to provide many more options for our students than we could afford on our own. Before joining OMIA we started an OverDrive collection on our own, but had so few titles available, it was difficult to promote the service. By joining OMIA and having access to the shared collection, it immediately gave our patrons access to thousands of additional titles, and the appeal of the collection is greater. There is added value in being able to access items that the entire group has licensed.” 

With member libraries ranging in type and size of institution, the group is thoughtful about working together while also recognizing that each library has distinct needs. Cara Cadena, Associate Dean of Collections & Digital Strategy at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), remarked,  

“Every partner library has different collecting priorities; we try to honor these by rotating subject priorities each purchasing cycle. Each member has the opportunity to prioritize a subject area—or not! There are levels of involvement which I really appreciate. The beauty of this group is in our flexibility. We experiment with different formats and areas of focus.”  

The OMIA partners meet as a whole group three times per year, with subcommittees meeting as needed to complete work or make decisions. Although the collection is developed and managed by the group, member libraries tailor their outreach and promotion efforts to their unique needs, curriculum, and culture. Cara Cadena said,  

“GVSU’s only audiobooks are provided by OMIA. I think we have around 1,000 audiobooks currently in OMIA. We also promote it as a lifelong learning opportunity, so prior to holiday breaks, spring break, and summer break, we promote the Libby app to keep our community reading and learning at their leisure.”  

Participant libraries’ readers and learners must be catching on, because we’re pleased to report that the titles in the OMIA collection have seen circulation increases of approximately 70% year over year. At Earlham College, OverDrive titles also help to meet academic needs. Amy Bryant noted,  

“Before OverDrive, there were several popular press publications that were assigned in classes but were unavailable for us to license through our academic ebook providers. We’re excited to be able to have ways to license more popular fiction and non-fiction to support our curriculum.” 

When asked about whether the libraries have received feedback from their patrons about access to OverDrive titles, Deb Shumaker commented,  

“Students and staff love the OMIA collection! They like the variety and the ability to request titles and have them available – usually within 24 hours. The Libby app is easy to download. Options like placing titles on hold and finding what’s recently been added to the collection are easily available.”  

We encourage prospective academic library participants in Indiana or Michigan to attend the Consortium Connect webinar hosted by OverDrive on April 17, and to reach out to services@mcls.org to learn more about OMIA.