Using Simultaneous Use digital titles to boost circulation and discovery
By: Todd Warhola, OverDrive Collection Development Analyst
(Ed. Note: Every title and list in this post can be purchased as a part of a Simultaneous Use plan in OverDrive Marketplace. Click Here to see all of our Simultaneous Use Plans.)
Discovery is a trending topic in libraries right now. Featured collections are a great way for your library to highlight content and make it more discoverable. Including titles from a Simultaneous Use plan in your featured collections is an added benefit because they’re always available – and your patrons will keep coming back again and again because they’ll never have to leave empty-handed.
Simultaneous Use plans are also a great way to fill holds in your collection. Titles like The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo routinely rack up double digit holds. Purchasing a simultaneous use plan from Tantor Media or Blackstone Audio will fill those holds and provide anywhere from 25-100 always available titles to your collection.
Compare the most popular titles from our simultaneous use plans to your collection. You’ll see that you have high holds on many of these titles. Consider how much it would cost to purchase enough copies of these titles to fill those holds! Libraries that have adopted simultaneous use plans have seen growth in circulation of those titles and have saved thousands by not having to purchase multiple copies of OC/OU titles.
A different approach to this conundrum would be to purchase a simultaneous use plan. The holds go away and suddenly you have a dynamic and always available collection to feature on your site! A year of unlimited checkouts of quality content. Click the High Holds Check link below to see how these titles are doing at your library.
Here are some highlights of the Simultaneous Use Plans we have available:
Audiobook
Blackstone Audio – A great selection of quality audio of the titles your patrons want, including Elena Ferrante, Ransom Riggs, Celeste Ng, Mary Kubica, Elizabeth Gilbert, Wheat Belly, and H is for Hawk.
Tantor Media – Even more quality audio, like The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Orange is the New Black, The Emperor of All Maladies, and Fahrenheit 451
eBook
Lonely Planet – Choose from the latest Lonely Planet travel guides – visit Italy, Japan, Mexico, France, Spain, Ireland, Great Britain and more.
Duke Classics – Always have your classics on hand. Pick from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Dracula, Frankenstein, or Anna Karenina, just to name a few.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers – 678 Business and Self Improvement Titles. Berrett-Koehler titles are perfect for corporations as well as individuals to get a step ahead in the workplace.
Rosetta Books – Great self-help and popular titles. Includes works by Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen R. Covey.
Streaming Video
PBS – Simply the best in education: Ken Burns, American Experience, Scientific American Frontiers, Nova, and Frontline.
