eZone Collection Development Policy

eZone Collection Development Policy

Materials in the OSL eZone collection shall be selected based on the interests and needs of all of the people served by the Ocean State Libraries consortium. Ocean State Libraries subscribes to the principles of intellectual freedom as stated in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights (opens in a new tab). Included in this statement is the commitment to honor the rights of an individual to use the library regardless of age, race, religion, national origin, or social or political views. Accordingly, the members of Ocean State Libraries provide equal service to all users. Children and adults are equally free to use and borrow from the entire consortium collection. No library materials shall be excluded because of the race, creed, gender, political, or social view of the work’s presenter.

Gifts

OSL may receive funds for the purchase of materials as gift donations. The consortium accepts these gift funds on the condition that their use is at the complete discretion of the members of OSL and/or the eZone Working Group. All donations become the property of OSL.

Purchasing

OSL library staff with authorization may purchase materials from OverDrive’s Marketplace (https://marketplace.overdrive.com (opens in a new tab)).

See Purchasing Guidelines for more information.

Local Content

With appropriate permissions electronic works by local authors may be uploaded to appear on ezone.oslri.net (opens in a new tab). The inclusion of these works will be subject to the same collection development and weeding standards as purchased material.

OverDrive Advantage

Libraries participating in the OverDrive Advantage program shall only purchase additional copies of titles already owned by OSL.

Review

Collection development policy and procedures will be reviewed on an ongoing basis by the eZone Working Group.

Revocation of log-in privileges

When a member of OSL with OverDrive Marketplace login privileges retires, resigns, or otherwise ceases to be employed within the consortium, OSL must be notified within 24 hours so the employee’s login privileges can be withdrawn.

Weeding

Materials being considered for withdrawal or replacement from the site will be discussed and approved by the eZone Working Group.

Challenges

Patrons should contact their local library and complete, sign, and submit a Request for Reevaluation of Digital Materials Form (opens file in a new tab).  If patron emails OSL, the email will be forwarded to the appropriate library director, who will serve as the first contact to hear the patron’s concerns and explain the challenge process.  The library director will forward the completed form to the eZone Working Group. Materials requested for reevaluation by a patron will be reviewed by the eZone Working Group and a recommendation will be reached.  The OSL Steering Committee will review and render a final decision on the eZone Working Group’s recommendation, and the library director will inform the patron of the decision.

Approved March 2011
Update approved March 17, 2022

OSL eZone Purchasing Guidelines

• All purchase orders (“Internal Purchase Order ID”) must start with a 3-letter library code.
• Unabridged audiobooks are preferred over abridged.
• eBook titles available in Adobe EPUB, Amazon Kindle and OverDrive Read are preferred over eBook titles in fewer or other formats. 

OSL funds will be used to purchase digital titles in these areas:

• One-copy-one-user (OC/OU) content is preferred over metered-access content
• Metered Access and License Renewals
  • Metered access includes the big four publishers
  • Renewal of this material is based on patron requests
  • Renewals are purchased several times a week
  • In some cases demand for expired content is fulfilled by re-purchasing titles with cost-per-circ licenses
• Holds Manager
  • Fulfills high demand holds and is ordered several times per week.
  • Several holds ratios, depending on content pricing, are used to trigger purchases.
  • For lower-cost titles, a ratio of three holds to one copy already owned triggers a potential purchase.
  • For medium-cost titles, a ratio of approximately six to one is used.
  • And for titles with a high purchase price, the ratio is 13 holds per copy, up to ten copies.
  • For Juvenile and Young Adult materials with inexpensive prices, at its discretion, OSL may purchase enough new licenses to fully satisfy the holds on those titles.
  • If 20 or more patrons are waiting for each copy, additional purchases will be considered if funds are available.
• Recommend to Library
  • Patrons may recommend titles via the recommend-to-library form on oslri.org.  Forms are forwarded to collection development contacts in each library. Patron recommendations are the responsibility of each library.
  • Excluded from purchase are textbooks, scholarly titles, eBook bundles, most abridgments.
• Simultaneous Use
  • Annual simultaneous use bundled subscriptions, individual simultaneous use titles and special negotiated titles promoting community reads, for example, may be purchased at the discretion of the eZone Working Group or its designated representative.
• New Content for adults, teens and children
  • Purchased by eZone selectors
  • Each selector submits a cart for purchase each month
  • Selection committee is appointed annually and rotates at the calendar year
  • Selectors are required to attend 4 of 6 eZone Working Group meetings each year
  • OSL has approximately nine eZone selectors, two of whom are alternates
  • Each selector shall attend the mandatory selector training