OverDrive: "New Library e-Catalogs Offer Expanded Selection"
Note: We knew this was coming but we’ve yet to see a news release from OverDrive with today’s news. Why not? Are there more details available? Did they brief members of the library press? We’ve asked OverDrive for a comment.
From the Associated Press:
OverDrive Inc., a major e-distributor for libraries, announced today the launch of a vastly expanded list for patrons, featuring not just e-books available for lending, but hundreds of thousands of those which include a collected of Edgar Allan Poe stories edited by Michael Connelly to foreign-language titles. Viewers can look at excerpts, purchase books from a retailer or request that their library add an e-book that wasn’t being offered.
“We’re allowing libraries to be better connected with their communities,” OverDrive CEO Steve Potash said during a recent interview. “Right now, we have librarians who are trying to add books to the e-catalog but don’t always know what to add. Now, by exposing a publisher’s entire list, it becomes like crowdsourcing, where patrons can offer their suggestions.”
Potash said he expects the program to begin within a couple of weeks, in a handful of library systems, including New York City, Boston and Cuyahoga County in Ohio.
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Filed under: Interviews, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Profiles, Publishing

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.