Resource Sharing

Sharing Ebooks and Audiobooks Among Academic Libraries

The New York Academic OverDrive Consortium was created to provide academic institutions in New York State with a larger and more affordable collection of ebooks and audiobooks than they could build on their own. This model emphasizes pooling resources and sharing access equally among all participating campuses. The Consortium is managed by Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN), a member of the Empire State Library Network (ESLN).

Each school has control over what items they buy for the collection. Northern New York Library Network organizes three purchases per year, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Coordination of selections is limited to preventing unneeded duplication, and repurchasing any expiring titles with active holds (from consortial credits, i.e. all contribute credits for this purpose). New participating schools inherit access to all items in the collection. Departing institutions leave behind all content purchased during their participation.

The current collection can be seen at https://nnyoverdrive.overdrive.com. This content will be available to all participating academic libraries.

Membership

Colleges or universities with 22,000 student FTE or fewer that are members of their local library council shall be eligible to join the Consortium. Any current OverDrive standalone system customer needs Overdrive’s permission to join the Consortium.

Interested colleges should submit their intent to join to meg@nnyln.org by mid-July. This allows time for required forms to be submitted and authentication to be configured by the start of the term (Sept 1). Colleges may join mid-cycle for an added administrative fee of $200 and annual Overdrive fees shall be prorated.

Fees

Overdrive will charge Northern New York Library Network an annual fee for each participating school according to the table below. The Annual Participation Fee shall be based upon the full-time enrollment (FTE) of the school.

Annual Participation Fee

Tier 1 FTE up to 2,000; $1,600 per year

Tier 2 FTE of 2,001 – 4,000; $2,400 per year

Tier 3 FTE of 4,001 – 7,000; $3,600 per year

Tier 4 FTE of 7,001 –11,000; $5,600 per year

Tier 5 FTE of 11,001-16,000 $6,800 per year

Tier 6 FTE of 16,0001-22,000 $9,200 per year

Three-fourths (75%) is allocated toward the selection of Digital Content for the shared Consortial collection, and one-fourth (25%) of the fee each year is absorbed by Overdrive for configuration, system fees and maintenance.

Northern New York Library Network will send invoices to each participating school each fall and payment will be due within 30 days of receipt. Additional content purchased by any participating school is not subject to any additional Overdrive fees

TBD

In Fall 2025, the consortium is considering adding the magazine collection, which is expected to increase the annual fee by 25% for all new members. The magazine collection includes 5,000 titles, all available for simultaneous use with no circulation caps. The increased cost is potentially offset by allowing a library to cancel duplicative print subscriptions. Magazines are available through Libby just like ebooks and audiobooks, and besides having no wait times, also have the added benefit of accessibility features. Titles include a variety of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, German, French, and more. 

Thanks for your interest! This is genuinely a good deal if it fits your library’s collection goals or strategy. Questions can be sent to meg@nnyln.org.