Hi everyone
We will go ahead and get started
I want to welcoming all to today's forty five minute panel on how libraries can engage readers with digital magazines comments and graphic novels
Today's webinar is for OverDrive public library partners
Who either have
Magazines and comics or do not yet offer these formats in your digital collection
There are no prerequisite to joining today's session
Going to be really great for library staff who have a beginner or an intermediate level knowledge of this topic
Speaking of magazines comics and graphic novels
We did open up chat so we'd love to hear what your favorites are
Moving on I'd love to do some introductions. My name is Lauren Bajda I am a product trainer at OverDrive and I will be our facilitator today
We have Rachel who is today's moderator. She is the marketing manager for the north america the public library team at OverDrive
And then we have Leslie. She has been the Seneca District Consultant for Seneca District Libraries in PA
Since January of 2017
Prior, Leslie was the Director at the Sugar Grove Free Library. She has her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a Marketing Concentration from Empire State College
A Master's Degree in Library Science from University at Buffalo
Next we have Libby she has been the digital resources librarian at Minuteman Library Network in MA for 10 years
She wrangles (this is her words) digital resources with the focus on OverDrive
She has an MLIS from Simmons, background in bookselling & academia, and worked in a variety of public library departments.
Then Lauren she has been a librarian at the San Bernardino County Library in CA since 2016. She was originally assigned as Branch Manager, and eventually became the system’s Collection Development Lead
where she’s in charge of both physical and digital collection development.
So thank you all for joining us today. Our experts span
The country
And they serve different population sizes so we're really happy to have all of them joining us
A few housekeeping items
You will receive a follow up email from zoom tomorrow and that will include the zoom recording
Within zoom we're using a webinar today so some features
You should be able to share reaction's. So you can use those while we are presenting today like a little heart or celebration
You can ask questions in q&a
We have Kevin and Karen on the line. They are OverDrive experts
They can answer your questions about magazines and comics throughout and
Then share questions you have for our panelists because we'll be asking know questions live as well
You can always adjust our closed captions and let just make sure
I actually turned that on
Yes I believe that has turned on so should be able to access closed captions
Then finally we have some resources. So there should be a tab you seen here called resources
And I linked to a FAQ page that we made specifically for this webinar
The FAQ's all about magazines and All Access Comics so you can find that there
Finaly at the end of the session we will share a certificate of attendance
Now for a little bit of context
Magazines and All Access Comics are all in access plans
That expand the content variety in your libraries catalogue
Appealing to a really wide user base
For libraries and patrons it allows for the consolidated management of content found alongside your ebooks and audio books in the Libby app
Which your patrons already know and love
Now on the left you're going to see OverDrive magazine plan which has over five thousand popular magazines and partnership with Zinio
Now in the registration I saw that the majority of you a joining today already offer magazines in your digital collection
So a few reminders for those of you magazines have no circulation cap
The allow for unlimited all in access
So patrons can enjoy every issue of every magazine
Magazines do not count towards your patron check out limit
So they can get as many as they want
We do have content offerings in twenty four different languages
That includes Spanish, Chinese
Japanese, Arabic any more
Any new magazines are automatically added into your collection
We do provide a rolling three years of back issues whenever available
Looking over on the right hand side of the screen you're going to see All Access Comics
This plan includes over four thousand of the best comic and graphic novels from Disney
Marvel, DarkHorse, and more
Readers of all ages will find something that they love in this collection include beloved characters from some of their favorites like Frozen,
Captain Marvel,
Mickey Mouse the Avengers and more
So comics are a really fantastic way to reach younger readers or reluctant readers
This All Access Comics plan is available in an unlimited all in access meaning your users
Can always borrow these titles there is never a wait list
Just like magazines any new comics and graphic novels are automatically added into your collection
And I did want to make a note that in addition to this All Access Comics plan
OverDrive does offer additional comics and graphic novels in our general collection
Including in the OverDrive Max (also known as Metered Access Concurrent Use) lending model
And then I wanted to show how your users can access
These formats since that's gonna be something our panelists talk about
So your patrons can discover magazines in Libby through curated lists
On the Libby screen
Yeah on the Libby screen, library screen
Too many l's
On the Newsstand
On the shelf screen
Or they can just search for a specific magazine
It just takes one tap
To borrow (open)
A magazine and when you do you can keep that magazine for seven
Days
It will live on your magazine rack
Or you can subscribe to a magazine and when you subscribe the latest issue of the magazine will live on your magazine rack
You'll be notified when a new issue of that magazine is released
Moving to comics and graphic novels your patrons can discover
These formats through curated lists
On the library screen
They can search by subject
They can also explore with catalog guides
Do want to note that catalog guides can be created with the assistance of your OverDrive team
This is available for standalone and shared collections or consortiums to create
And comics and graphic novels work very similarly to ebooks
Finally on the back end in OverDrive Marketplace
Library staff can subscribe to and renew their magazine and All Access Comics collections
Under the shop drop down and simultaneous use
Under insights you can pull reports on your magazine and comic checkouts
And then if you have any questions I first encourage you to check out that faq page that we've created
Then you can always talk to your OverDrive account manager
And their contact information is found under the support tab in Marketplace
Okay so now that we have a basic understanding of OverDrive magazines and All Access Comics
I am delighted to welcome our moderator Rachel
Hi!
Thank you so much Lauren and I welcome all the panelists to join as well
Lauren that was such a wonderful introduction thank you so much. As Lauren mentioned I am Rachel Mayfield the marketing manager for our public library business unit and i'll be moderator for the session today
I am thrilled to be here with three incredible women and librarians who are experts in the magazine and comic space
Lauren gave us a quick overview of each speaker and I'm going to give them each and opportunity to introduce themselves and give a little bit more background about their library and their role there
I think understanding where they come from and who they are
Will really help us put all of our questions and answers into context
So Libby why don't you start us off
Sure I'm from the Minuteman Library Network which is metrowest Boston so not including boston proper but the subarbs just west the city we have
A lot of voracious readers and our network is mostly public libraries especially for where OverDrive is concerned
Great thank you
Very cool here and I be interested to hear some of your answers later on. And now Leslie why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself
In from the Seneca District library which PA has twenty nine districts I'm very rural
North western Pennsylvania along the New York border
We have five county roughly a hundred and twenty thousand people across those countries and seventeen independent libraries across those countries
Wow thank you and last but certainly not least Lauren
Hello I work for the San Bernardino County Library. I'm in charge both the physical and digital collection development. We have we have thirty two branches in total. And in San Bernardino County we're one of the largest counties in the united states. So we serve a very diverse population from all different kind of economic backgrounds. So I think this discussion will be really cool to talk about
Thank you i'll be interested to hear your perspective as well from a large library so thank you
Okay so now we have all of the housekeeping items out of the way lets dive into the good stuff the q and a portion
So the first question I have for you all is can you tell me what made the magazines and all access comic format so appealing? First we're gonna hear from Leslie, then Libby, then Lauren
So what made magazine so appealing
So what made magazines so appealing for us. A lot of the small libraries couldn't afford print magazines on their own and through consortia buying
We were able to
Get magazines
Then we added comics last summer
So
It's again something to help them
Leverage a consortia buying power
With their small library budgets
So for Minuteman the, excuse me
I beg your pardon. The appeal of magazines was to have it in digital format which is becoming more and more popular
But also to get rid of the hassle with a lot of the tracking distributors and so on and
Having it in one interface being able to have patrons use ebooks audiobooks and magazines all in one place
Comics was more of a follow onto that
I mentioned voracious readers so simultaneous use model packages are extremely appealing
And we don't always have the
Collection development knowledge to
Buy graphic novels and comics intelligently but
This way we have a collection that is always available
Pass it off to Lauren while I drink some water. So for us we started All Access Comics back in twenty twenty one. Like Libby said not everybody is a comic fan or they have the knowledge to really curate the collection. So with all access you have a built in library of titles that are available all the time for anyone to check out. You dont have to wait for a hold. A lot of people if they want to read a title they want to read it now especially with graphic novels so we started in twenty twenty one
And we've kept it on because it just keeps increasing. For magazines it's been super popular with our patrons um we
We had it a while back and then we stopped because we had
Another vendor come in but that vendor it never really worked
Out the way it did with Libby
So we went back to magazines back in in December twenty twenty two. It's been a hit our customers love to have all those magazines available at any time
So just the selection and the ease of use for both
Yeah that's great I mean
Libby you mentioned you have voracious readers who
You know want to consume all of this and of some of the updates that we've recently made to magazines where they can subscribe and be notified when these new issues come out you know that's a huge benefit for them. And I like you mention Lauren the All Access Comics being able to kind of have this collection that's pre curated that really resonates with your community is also really beneficial
If I may throw it for the magazines to not count against patrons checkouts they definitely are aware of that they'll like that very much. And I think the ease of use the one stop shop. They don't have to go out to multiple platforms it's all right there for them
They're very familiar with Libby and it's just an extra bonus now for them
Love that
So our next question how did your library prioritize budgets for magazines and comics? First we're gonna hear from Leslie, Libby and then Lauren
Originally when we bought magazines we had used
Here's money
To try it out because we didn't have the money at the time
Then it was so popular we
Took some of the other magazine venders that weren't ease of use for our patrons
And use that money. Well then we ended up getting ARP money too so that's when we tried out the comics and
It has just been
So popular with not only the patrons but with our various staff members. That now they are, we're in the midst of budget season now, and we're making sure we can build it in and
Get rid of the lesser used resources
At Minuteman the budget is directed at the, we serve at the pleasure of our libraries, and our library said they wanted magazines through OverDrive so we got it when it first became available. And now that it switched to the Zinio package, which has been now for a while, they're very happy with it and the circulation keeps going up so
We're told to make it a priority. And then the network buyer suggested the comics and that's been very well received so
I'm not sure that really is a great answer but. No that's wonderful thank you Libby
Lauren what about you
So for comics when we started them in two thousand twenty one. It was because we have leftover budget from twenty twenty because we weren't buying physical items. So at that time (and I'm sure this is true for everybody out there) our digital circulation when up and we wanted to go ahead and add more. And then All Access Comics was an easy way to do that and it's still growing because we've gone up twenty two percent in our circulation just year over year with comics so it's growing. For magazines that's been a little bit easier. And I'm sure people have the same issue of getting physical items is very difficult because the magazine industry as a whole is dying out at this time. So magazines will go under you won't get a magazine anymore that money is
Not
Given back to you. You're switched out with a title you may not want and having the ability to have such an expansive selection available for our patrons to check out at any time. And again that goes back to the pandemic as well we didn't have libraries open and this was a
Easy way for people to go ahead and start checking out these items from the comfort of home. And they can still do that. And not having to invested money in the physical magazine but have that plug through Libby has been great. Our circulation is up and I think people will actually prefer
The ability to just check out these items from home
It's incredible you know the pandemic changed a lot. In negative ways but it also changed some things in really cool and unique ways you know. To see readership from the physical magazines and comics all the way shift to digital and then continue to stay that way because that's preference of the community. So that's really interesting thank you for sharing that
Ok now as a marketing manager this is probably my favorite question of the group here I have to say that. But what fun and unique ways have you marketed magazines and All Access Comics. We'll hear from Leslie, Lauren and then Libby
So one of the things that we have is free comic book day and we have partnered with some of the local comic shop and then the libraries that
Aren't near comic shop you can actually tell them that
And then when we get those we also have little displays that
Check out All Access Comics on the different comics that are in our physical collection. We have little sticks on them that says check out more on Libby so
Those are the fun ways that we like to do it we like to get the
OverDrive resources
Pop them into Canva and brand it for all of all of the district libraries. Seventeen logos go on you know some of those things. And the people just love it, they love the bookmarks, they love on the how the easy how tos
So if you haven't checked out free comic book days it's a fun way to engage younger readers
I love that thank you
Yeah thank you Leslie and if you're on the webcast and you haven't been to the OverDrive Resource Center we can pop the link here in the chat. There's so many resources. They're updated on a monthly basis. You'll definitely want to check that out cause there's definitely some magazines and comic kits in there. So thank you for mentioning that Leslie. Lauren would love to hear what you have gone on
Yeah so when we were able to go back to Libby for
Magazines back in December of twenty twenty two we were able to use that resource center to grab a graphic. We were going into the holiday season so there's going to be branch closures. People are going to be traveling and on the road so we were really able to just
Pop up something that said open twenty four seven go ahead and check out a magazine. We could put that on our Facebook to let people know hey if you're traveling you can just pop up a magazine on your phone or your iPad. You don't have to worry about going to like an airport bookshop or anything like that. It's just all ready for you. And for comics we're actually in the beginning stage of planning like a Comic Con or Library Con for some of our branches so we're looking forward to planning with having all access available. Much like Leslie did with the free comic book day. Which by the way great ideas so
That what we've done
I love it. I love all the events going on it's very cool. And once you have a plan please reach out I'd love to hear more about what you guys end up doing so very cool
And Libby
And Rachel leaves me last because I get to do things a little differently. We're
We're a network that as I say we serve at the pleasure of our libraries. So we dont tell them what to do and they like to do direct patron outreach themselves. Patrons are aware they're part of our network but they think of themselves more as a Cambridge resident, the Cambridge library or the Framingham Library rather than Minuteman first so
We can offer marketing materials but we dont do marketing directly was my message there. But what we do do which I have a lot of fun with is we curate in the OverDrive interface. So Libby and OverDrive curation are great fun to do with magazines and with comics. The comics we found was very helpful to break them up by our
Our interpretation of audience level
Because we don't know we is agree with the publishers on which comics and graphic novels go with which age level. So we broke them out and that also helped people realize that there were comics for adults and graphic novels for adults as well as some of the
Children and young adults material. So that was very that was a really good way to
Way to reach out to patrons. And then also I have a lot of fun with the magazines. I can make curations for all kinds of events and topics because there are so many different things covered in the magazines
For example we just had tax day and there are a few magazines related to that
And fiances and there's also we just had the Boston Marathon
So there's a lot of running materials. So a curation on marathons and running is really easy to do. So you can have a lot of fun with that and I do have a lot of fun with that. And it's really impressive how much stuff is in there. And I think um Lauren you caught me out when we were talking before I hadn't even thought of doing things like Taylor Swift and BTS but I'll get there
I've been focusing on events and days
Theres a lot of popular culture items that you can totally curate just based on what's going around Tik Tok
It's insane how much is available
Libby I love at the curation is so important. I mean it there's four thousand five thousand magazine the comics like to pull these topics to the front
For the the patrons is really helpful and helps them discover so bravo that's awesome
Okay so our next question we kind of covered already but I'm gonna open it up to the group just in case you have anything else to add
How have your patrons reacting to having access to magazines and comics in the same app as your ebooks and audiobooks? Leslie you definitely hit on this, Lauren you too. Anything anyone wants to add we don't have to go in a particular order here
One thing I would add is just basically when I was in the branch we get a lot of people where this was their first time using the app. Libby is so simple to use and so easy to get help
When you're useing the app. So ease of use is like my number one
Once somebody learns it they're able to just
Figure out what they want and what's available to them
I'd say they just like it
Ninety percent of our checkouts take place in the Libby app now as opposed to the website so
It's all in one place and that's what the staff wants and thats what the patrons want to
Great
Leslie any last comments
No I think I think thats it they just wanted in one spot
The easiest way to do it in the easiest way for staff to be able to talk them through it especially over the phone
It's so much easier. I think we're about ninety percent in Libby and I think the ten percent is me making the
Videos on how to do it on the web page. That's funny thank you all of you that's great
Our next question so how is the diverse collection of magazines and comics help you reach a variety of patrons within your community? I'm thinking about those people who speak languages other than english or children etc
I'm going to hear from Libby and then we'll go to Lauren
We've had a lot of fun with the languages I've had fun going through and breaking out curations by language. There's just an impressive number of languages in there
I think that's probably the most focus I've had
In it I think I've mentioned
Before that we were surprised in the Boston area we were particularly aware that we had Swedish readers and Danish readers
But we do so
They're using the languages that are in there
That's great
And it was a way for you to uncover portions of your community or languages within your community that you didn't know about and now you can
Program differently or tailor your collections to them so very cool
We were aware that we had a strong Spanish speaking population, French speaking population etc but we weren't aware of all the languages that are that are being used so it's
Cool thing to find out
Yeah that's awesome great
And Lauren
So in San Bernardino County we have a thirty eight percent Spanish speakers population here so that's a big population. So over the last few years we've been adding more Spanish titles books and audio books to our collection so having the magazines and All Access Comics available
Boosted that collection it gave more variety more choices to our Spanish speakers and it helps our collection reflect our community
Better than it was before
Great awesome
Alright moving on, what trends are you seeing with physical magazine circulation
And how are you highlighting digital magazines in your physical spaces?
We'll hear from Leslie and Lauren.
So we've had a large increase
In Digital
Because the physical we haven't been able to provide as many titles like Lauren said
They just disappear
So when people are looking for that magazine title
We
Sometimes we have little place holders that says
No longer available but check out these different titles on on Libby
And so some of them like
Good housekeeping or
They no longer can afford People magazine check out US Weekly so we're offering kind of a static readers advisory and of options for them
So I was able to just grab some circulation numbers for our physical magazine circulation and compare that to with what we're doing with Libby so in last year 2023
Physically we
Circulated
Nineteen
Thousand but digitally we did forty nine thousand so that is a huge difference so circulation leads your choices of what you're going to invest your money in and that just makes it easy ever year to renew this resource because it's reaching our patrons they're enjoying it it's getting that information that they're looking for so those numbers
Those numbers show where
That going
I mean that's mindblowing really the numbers tell a story and the data won't lie exactly very very interesting thank you for sharing those numbers
So Libby offers some single issue magazines which are magazines that are published with publish
Published intentionally as a one time issue
Tell us how these single issue magazines have performed for you in your library. Libby why don't you start us off.
Well I mentioned curation and
Definitely one of the more popular
Batches of curation are the single issues that
You can find on cooking for example
Organizing declutting or cleaning exercise there's even one on how to play chess
Just a of a lot of single issue magazines and
It's really kind of like getting extra ebooks but people enjoy having them and again they can
Check them out instantly
All kinds of topics so they're really glad to have them right there
Yeah more curating for sure
Lauren, anything from you on the topic?
I'm just back to what Libby said there are so many different
Single
Issue magazines like even if you go into a store and you see a single issue magazine like for instance oh wow look a brand new Pedro Pascal magazine you can find it in Libby and you can have in downloaded like it's so simple so there's just so many out there or if you're Swiftie and you have the album coming out this week there are single issues all about Taylor Swift up there. Like that's easy stuff that you can curate, put on your Facebook so people see it and then download it.
Guilty as charged I want that issue Taylor Swift.
It's great it's another great option for your readers for sure
Leslie anything to add on this or
No I think they both covered it because that's exactly what we use them for
Great alright
Our last question here and we are just at time for the panel portion of this presentation so we can go around the room quickly but what are some of your patrons and staff's favorites
from the collection? We'll hear from with Libby, Leslie, and Lauren.
Our favorite magazines the New Yorker, which is kind of funny because Boston has a love/hate relationship with New York. The New Yorker, US magazine, cooks illustrated, national geographic, those are our top and
I don't know how
This would be expected but
The popular graphic novels are Avatar always. Just
Right up there was minecraft.
Great
So our's are women's world and the new yorker
US weekly
Prevention
And good housekeeping
And our comics are
Very much like Libby with minecraft being one of the big ones for us
So
I really am seeing a great
Usage of these resources and it just makes me happy!
That's awesome love it.
Is the New Yorker on your list? it is! It's number one! number one over here The New Yorker, followed by US weekly and interestingly new scientist. Interestingly I know around the office when we got Magnolia that was huge for some of our team members here there's super excited about that.
I was thrilled
I was thrilled to see national geographic myself but yes that's another big one and it comics wise looking at it
Anything with Spiderman will circulate no matter what so
That's huge huge series title.
Love that! Well thank you all for sharing such great information and insight I personally learned a lot and I hope all of our attendees learned a lot as well and were going to open it up for Q&A so we are gonna have Lauren come back and she'll read some questions that were submitted and then you guys get to answer them.
So Lauren.
Well thank you all panelists for such amazing answers.
One of the questions that came in
A patron not a patron a library was curious are you offering comics outside of the All-Access Comics collection?
I do here at San Bernadino County I do buy some outside of All Access
So that's what we do here.
Yes very popular format.
Even in digital as well as physical but in a digital we definitely by outside of the All Access.
Some of the
More well known series
Got your manga
We buy manga
Physically
Not too many comics due to
You know these are small libraries and you need the latest James Patterson ahead of some of the comics for them
But we have bought the stand alone digital copies as well
thank you there really is a large collection of comics and graphic novels and manga inside of the All Access plan and just in the general collection.
Then another question that came in
Someone said we have
We have Sora for their schools so Sora is OverDrive's
K-12
Student reading app.
And through that they can connect to their public library and access
Those comics and graphic novels so I don't
I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this so I can all start by answering it but they want to know will age appropriate comics from that All Access Comics show up
In Sora for their students and the answer on OverDrive side is yes.
Students will only see those age appropriate comics and graphic novels
From their public library as well which is a great feature
And I'll open it up is that anything
That any of you are
Have done at your library that connection to your schools?
We have
We have one
It just came on board and so far what's been checked out are
Comics graphic novels we're not seeing so far
A lot of other titles
Going out through the Sora but
We were seeing them access the All Access comics.
Awesome
We do have a lot of our area on the Public Library Connect through Sora into Minuteman's collection and definitely
I'm with
Leslie that
They go for the comic and graphic novels as well as class assignments but
The comics are appreciated.
That's a really fun I would imagine if I was a student I would probably be checking out similar content.
Any final words from the panelists before I pass it back over to Rachel for an exciting announcement?
No I would just say um I think both
Programs are really good resources for patrons and I think it's really worth looking at if it's
Something that you are able to go forward with I would definitely recommend
Giving it a try!
Second the thought!
Same!
Thank you.
Alright well let me share my screen and Rachel, I'm going to kick it back over to you.
Thank you all that was such a great discussion and I like the two extra questions at the end I think that was great. So we have a giveaway that we are really excited. So we talked about some ways that you can market your digital collection through your physical locations and we are here to give you the goods. For the first thirty people that scan this QR code, we'll also throw the link in the chat, if you dont have a mobile device near you, you will get a marketing kit and you can choose from three different ones one that focuses on magazines one that focuses on comics and then one that splits each and half to magazines and comics. you will get two hundred printed bookmarks two hundred business cards and a hundred stickers that you can place on your physical collection to let your patrons know that they have access to the digital versions so you can see the examples there so i'll give you guys a couple minutes here to just go ahead and scan
And these will ship out probably within three weeks four weeks you'll receive your kit.
Alright and we'll also send this link in a follow up email as well after the panel so if you weren't able to scan or click real quick now you'll get a chance later.
So thank you so much and Lauren I'll invite you back for any last words. Thank you Rachel.
So all of those panelists if you'd like you are welcome to turn off your video at this time as we wrap it up
So I love two close here with some next steps for success
During our time together you really got to hear how libraries all across north america are engaging readers with
Magazines comics and graphic novels
Following our session today we encourage you to consider
Adding these formats if you haven't already
Encourage you to promote these formats with your library community you heard some really great suggestions from
Comic book day which is coming up soon and more so lot of good suggestions from our panelists we also free marketing materials available on OverDrive Resource Center and we'll chat out a link to that Resource Center again in chat
And a third watch your circulation rise as your patrons enjoy this content there really is something for everyone
I encourage you to mark your calendar we have an upcoming webinar
Getting Started with Libby it's coming up on Tuesday May 14th at 11 am eastern time so to learn more or to register you can visit OverDrive Resource Center
Under the training tab
Well with that I want to give a big thank you to our moderator Rachel and our panelists Leslie, Libby, and Lauren. We got a lot of the Ls today and thank you to Karen and Kevin for assisting with Q&A.
So a reminder you will receive an email from Zoom tomorrow that will include a recording and a PDF of those frequently asked questions.
So at this time my colleague Lisa is going to chat out a link to your certificate of attendance
When you leave the session today a short survey will appear on your screen it should take just one to two minutes to fill out and we would appreciate your feedback so we can continuously improve our webinar sessions for you.
So in just a moment here I'm going to move our panelists
Back stage so they can relax.
We are all going to keep an eye on Q&A for about the next five minutes to answer any of those questions that come through and we just hope that you all have a fantastic day and once again thank you so much for joining us!
Happy reading!