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By: Brian Byrne, OverDrive Marketing & Communications Specialist

As libraries continue to evolve, OverDrive is helping both stand alone and consortia best meet the needs of their member libraries and readers with improved features and tools.

Participating in a shared collection has always been a highly effective way for libraries to provide eBooks, audiobooks and streaming video at an affordable cost. And now with the launch of the New OverDrive platform, Advantage titles are now seamlessly integrated into a consortia’s shared collection. When an Advantage user signs in, their home library will be remembered so the next time they visit, they’ll automatically see both the shared collection and Advantage titles.

phx-apAdvantage libraries will also have their own URL that they can promote and customize through curation tools in OverDrive Marketplace, allowing each library to create a browsing experience specifically designed for their community.

An example of an extremely successful consortia is the Greater Phoenix Digital Library, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. Comprised of eight member libraries, Greater Phoenix is on pace for another record year for circulation in 2016 with more than 3 million checkouts. The most popular titles this year so far have been A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain, Make Me by Lee Child, Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham, Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich and American Sniper by Chris Kyle.

Greater Phoenix takes full advantage of the features available for its OverDrive-powered website, incorporating Kids and Teens eReading Rooms and a Screening Room to highlight streaming video titles. It’s been a long-time participant in the Big Library Read global eBook club, and utilizes the Smart Lists, Recommend to Library and Holds Manager collection development tools.

A timeline of how Greater Phoenix has grown with OverDrive

Greater Phoenix Digital Library Timeline
Click to enlarge
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Click to enlarge

  

In honor of Greater Phoenix’s 10th anniversary, let’s take a look at the impressive circulation growth it’s experienced over the last decade:

• 2006 – 45,081
• 2007 – 129,848
• 2008 – 231,784
• 2009 – 308,048
• 2010 – 426,205
• 2011 – 855,510
• 2012 – 1,572,393
• 2013 – 2,198,824
• 2014 – 2,662,598
• 2015 – 3,169,716
• 2016 (estimated) – 3,602,766

Congratulations to the Greater Phoenix Digital Library on this milestone, and here’s to many more!