From: "David N. Nelson" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 13:36:31 +0000

Addressing only question 2:

The public library market penetration for Overdrive is probably
extremely high.  As far as I can tell, Tennessee has a contract with
them that serves all the Public library systems in the state, which
would make that 100% (Tennessee Reads (Regional Ebook and Audio
Dowload System)).  However, as far as I can tell, many academic
libraries do not have overdrive.  Our library doesn't.  That would
diminish their market.  I guess for Tennessee one could stretch the
numbers to the 90s in percentage given the ratio of public libraries
to college/university libraries.

David Nelson
Chair, Collection Development and Management
Middle Tennessee State University

-----Original Message-----

From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 16:20:42 -0400

Riding along in my automobile today:  my curiosity was running wild
when I was passed by an 18-wheeler splashed with signs about e-books
and offering the URL: www.digitalbookmobile.com.  It took some doing
to see that this vehicle travels to public libraries on behalf of
something called Overdrive, Inc., which (it claims) "partners with"
96% of the libraries in the United States.  Big flashy vehicle, series
of events:
I have several questions.

1.  Does "partners with" mean "sells stuff to"?

2.  96%? really?  That's remarkable market penetration if so.

3.  I'm curious about how a roadshow to demo ebooks to the populace
makes sense?  (I do understand that they are a licensor of ebooks.)

Puzzled on the road,
Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown