Amigos E-book Platform Pilot Project – An Update

The Amigos e-book Platform Project continues taking shape. By now, many hours have been spent determining the requirements of the platform, as well as investigating options for its creation. We wanted to provide you with an update of this exciting project. Also, if this is the first you’ve heard of the project, don’t hesitate to visit the Amigos website for an overview.

In July, we invited 18 librarians to a brainstorming session at the Amigos office to ascertain what our members wanted this platform to do for them. By the end of the day, the group had created prioritized lists of requirements: one list from academic librarians and one from public librarians. We have since used the lists as the basis for more detailed requirements.

Additionally, we have spent time contacting individuals, organizations, and vendors that are currently using or planning to create platforms like ours. These conversations have helped us identify the advantages and disadvantages of various options, as well as provide some guidance on what to expect on an ongoing basis.

We have determined that there is nothing currently available that can provide the functionality our members are asking of us, so we will be building a platform using pieces from earlier projects – Douglas County Libraries, Marmot, and Califa’s Enki – as well as creating those we cannot find. We plan to have a basic e-book service available during the summer of 2014, devoting the year following the launch to developing the more complex functionality.

We are also looking for volunteers for two advisory groups:

• The Publisher Advisory Group will aid us in identifying which publishers or authors we should contact to be part of this project. Amigos will contact and negotiate with them, but we would like guidance from our members. This group will continue its role throughout the project, but its members will change over time.
• The Cataloging Advisory Group will help us look at options for producing, converting, or acquiring MARC records for these e-books. This group will work for a specific time period and then disband.

All discussions will be online or by phone. If you are interested in joining either group, contact Program Manager Christine Peterson at peterson@amigos.org or 800-843-8482, ext. 2891. Another way to keep up with the project is to like our Facebook page.