OverDrive will soon debut several new features including OverDrive Hub, a portal designed to enable staff in a variety of roles to work with their library’s digital branch, the company announced during the “Forward Together: The Future of Your Digital Branch with the OverDrive Hub and Libby” panel at OverDrive’s biennial Digipalooza conference in August. Presenters included Katie Blachman, product liaison; Ryan Fish, executive VP, product management and UI/UX; and Heather Valentine-Gold, team lead, product management for OverDrive.

“The Hub will be a new daily destination for all library staff to engage with and contribute to your digital branch,” Blachman explained. “This ranges from your collection development and electronic resource librarian staff to your help desk, your marketing and outreach team, your key stakeholders and data analysts, and everyone in between.”

The portal will “take the pieces of marketplace that aren’t specifically focused on collection development and allow us to build new designated, task-oriented experiences,” Blachman added. It will include three primary components: Marketplace for collection development and curation; The Newsroom, which will include tools for promoting library events, branch updates, and even fundraisers to patrons via OverDrive’s Libby app; and The Loop, which will feature tools for data analysis, reviewing performance, and evaluating patron engagement with a library’s digital collection. The Loop will also feature APIs enabling libraries to integrate their digital collection data with a library’s ILS and other reporting tools.

In addition, Fish announced that improved metered access and cost-per-circ management tools are also in the works to help collection development librarians opt for the best and most cost-effective licensing models for different titles based on criteria ranging from price point to format to target audience. The tools will enable librarians search for content across all available lending models, create custom plans to manage expiring metered access titles, and run on-demand reports.

“We always want to provide data to help [libraries] understand the ROI for your collection and your initiatives,” Fish said. “This always comes back to the most important initiative for OverDrive, and that's really empowering librarians…. The goal for The Hub is to help you make decisions about what books to purchase and what [licensing] models and in a way that is the most cost effective for your library.”

Earlier this year, OverDrive also launched a feature enabling libraries to promote call-to-action campaigns—such as fundraisers—using the Libby app. The feature has been used for successful campaigns by libraries including Brooklyn Public Library and LA County Library, but currently the feature must be administered with the help of an OverDrive representative. When The Hub launches, The Newsroom will include self-service tools for these types of campaigns, as well as tools for promoting author visits, summer reading programs, seasonal campaigns, branch updates, surveys, library-created content such as podcasts, and more using Libby.

“Down the road, The Newsroom will offer other advanced tools for your library to publish service announcements—so if you were to make some lending policy changes and want to communicate that out to your users [for example]—as well as editorial content like blogs and newsletters and more to really make Libby a place that reflects your libraries voice, your brand, and the communities that you serve,” said Valentine-Gold.