The First Global eBook Club for Libraries (on OverDrive)

Facebook Image Provided by OverDrive's Marketing Kit

Have you ever wanted to try an eBook Club with your patrons? If your library uses OverDrive, now is your chance to try it out!

From now until July 7th, patrons can borrow the eBook A Murder In Time by Julie McElwain and participate in the fun. Here's why every library with OverDrive should get on board:

1. This title was selected in a survey of over 20,000 OverDrive readers! Even if only 10% of these people participate, it'll be a vibrant community.

2. Since you're partnering with OverDrive and the publisher Pegasus Books, there will be no waitlist -- everyone will get to immediately download the book. (YAY!) Unfortunately, there is no audiobook version of this book but all OverDrive libraries were automatically included in this program. (You can opt-out, if you want -- but why would you?)

3. It is a great way to introduce patrons to your eBook collection, getting a feel for how it works and how easy it is to use (and getting them to look beyond the bestsellers).

4. OverDrive created a marketing kit to help you get the word out! They designed professional images for social media, fliers, a press release, and more that you can modify and use.

5. OverDrive has an online discussion board for all participants and they also provided libraries with the discussion questions, if you want to host your own event. They even have an interview with the author, which you can share with your patrons.

It might be too late to fully participate this year, but it only takes 5 minutes to print out the fliers and post on social media about this program. Being busy librarians, it is so nice to have the hard work done for us! We at 5minlib give three cheers to OverDrive!

So, how about we work together to get the word out and make this program successful? A win/win for all!

9 Ways to Place Library eBooks into the Hands of Readers

How do you advertise your eBook collection? Check out the ways other libraries are doing it!:

OverDrive wrote a great post about Sacramento Public Library's eBook advertisements. They created stickers for their books, announcing it is also available in eBook format.

They also made shelf talkers with QR Codes on the back to alert patrons. They even provided examples any library can copy and modify.

Overdrive also created their own sticker and shelf talker templates that you can modify to your library's URL.

ACRL's blog highlighted a different kind of eBook shelf marker from Florida International University. This one is laminated and has a call number on the other side, discouraging users from bringing the cards home with them. Might be a GREAT idea for summer reading books?

Or, instead of laminating a shelf marker, you can do what Brisbane Grammar Libraries did and order these plastic holders which are magnetic on top so they sit directly on the shelf:

Barbara Plum also shared a display she made for her school library, printing out pictures of eBook covers inside iPad frames. Very cool and easy to do!

But if you only have a bulletin board, why not put together a display there? Love this one from Clear Falls Library:

And don't forget that you can advertise your eBooks outside of the library. Michael Stephens took this picture at the local airport where Traverse Area District Library advertise their eBooks. I would love to see more of these around trains and bus stations, too.

Oletangy Liberty Middle School actually has a kiosk right in their school library, encouraging students to check out the public library's collection of e-content: eBooks, music, audio books, and films. It is a touch screen and students only need a library card and the app to download up to 10 items at a time. This project cost them $1,850 since they already owned all of the content. (Not sure if they used the 3M kiosk pictured below, but I wanted to provide a visual.)

Happy eBook advertising in 5 minutes!