Building the Kansas eContent collection together

Kansas eContent services are entering a new and exciting phase with the transition to the new Kansas EZ Library, featuring audiobooks from Recorded Books (OneClickDigital) and ebooks from the 3M Cloud Library service. Many libraries have questions about just how they will participate in building the Kansas EZ Library Collection. This is how NEKLS will approach that:

1. Libraries are encouraged to participate in the Kansas EZ Library statewide collection, and that will meet the NEKLS public library accreditation requirement that “The library purchases access to downloadable electronic content such as ebooks as part of its collection. ” At this time NEKLS is not planning to develop a regional eContent service separate from Kansas EZ Library but that is subject to change.
2. A library may contribute to the Kansas EZ Library collection by contributing to the NEKLS regional account or by maintaining a local library account. Generally, I recommend that libraries planning to purchase less than $1,000 per year participate in the NEKLS regional account, rather than maintaining a small local account. However this is only a recommendation; any library may choose to have its own separate account and libraries may certainly contribute more than $1,000 to the NEKLS regional account. NEKLS will select titles based on policies recommended by an eContent collection development committee, and in addition libraries may send purchase recommendations to NEKLS for purchase from this fund.
3. I will be sending detailed information to public library directors about ordering information. That information will also be available on the NEKLS web site at http://www.nekls.org/nekls-services/e-content/ Other types of libraries are also very welcome to participate. School or academic librarians interested in contributing to Kansas EZ Library should contact me for further information.