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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the topics for our annual all-member meeting this Thursday is Advantage Plus. Here's some background about that topic to inform our discussion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What is OverDrive Advantage?</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advantage allows members of a consortium such as ours to purchase titles which are available exclusively for their patrons.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many members use Advantage to purchase extra copies to reduce waiting times, and some use it to make unique titles available to their communities.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Roughly half of our members currently participate.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What is Advantage Plus?</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advantage Plus allows Advantage libraries to share their local copies with the rest of the consortium.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How does Advantage Plus work?</b></span></p>
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<li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Participation is entirely voluntary.</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Advantage libraries create a plan in Marketplace which determines the criteria for titles that will be shared. For example, titles can be shared through Advantage Plus
based on date added to the Advantage collection, format, lending model, latest checkout date, and more.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></span></span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is an automated process. While individual titles cannot be shared on a case-by-case basis,
it is possible to exclude individual titles from the Advantage Plus program.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
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</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shared titles will be available to the entire consortium, whether they participate in Advantage
or not.</span></span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Holds for the owning library’s
patrons are given priority over consortial holds. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Is there a recommended sharing plan?</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Members are free to create any sharing plan they wish, but the Executive Committee’s initial recommendation is to share one-copy/one-user (i.e., unmetered) titles owned for more than one year.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These titles are likely past their peak demand, and there would be no downside to sharing them.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What are the benefits of participating?</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is an opportunity to improve the depth, availability and circulation of our collection without an increase to our shared materials budget.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As more of that budget is allocated toward the highest-demand titles, this may be the best way to ensure that unique and specialized-appeal titles are available.</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black;">Will there be any kind of compensation for sharing?</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black;">Any compensatory reduction in member fees will not be an option, as it would diminish our shared materials budget.</span><span style="font-family:
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black;">What can I do if my library doesn’t have Advantage?</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black;">There is no fee to join the Advantage program, and no minimum purchase involved. Advantage is the ideal mechanism to respond to purchase requests from your patrons, so we recommend that
members consider joining. We'll be sending out more information about this soon, and the Board can offer assistance in the process.</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"></span></p>
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<div><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:11pt">John McInnes</span></font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="tahoma"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:11pt">Head of Fiction, Audiovisual and Teen Services</span></font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="tahoma"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:11pt">Mount Prospect Public Library</span></font></div>
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<p>Opinions expressed are those of the sender and not of the Mount Prospect Public Library.</p>
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