The Executive Board of the WVDELI (West Virginia Digital Entertainment Library Initiative) will meet next week in Bridgeport to discuss expansion of its very popular services.  The DELI consists of consortia of eleven members: Bridgeport Public Library, Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library, Morgantown Public Library, Marion County Public Library, Ohio County Public Library, South Charleston Public Library, Kanawha County Public Library, Mary H. Weir Public Library, Fayette County Public Library, Glenville State College Library and Fairmont State University Library.

           

The consortia established in 2008 with six members in the following years grew to include eleven members.  The purpose of the consortia was to provide downloadable materials to patrons including audiobooks, eBooks, video and music.  Each library pledges to spend $10,000 per year on content which is available to all cardholders of the eleven libraries 24/7.  So far the WVDELI has around 50,000 items and the members have spent over 1.5 million dollars on content.  This size collection would never be possible for an individual library.

           

The platform is provided by Overdrive, a leading multichannel digital distributor of eBooks, digital audiobooks, music and video.  It can be found in 22,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide with support for all major computers and devices, including iPhone, Nook, Android phones, tablets and Kindle.

           

One of the main topics at the meeting will be changes made to the popular magazine download service known as Zinio which offers copies of nearly 100 magazines to download to your computer or device.  Some of the magazines that we have subscribed to in the past are no longer available, and we will be adding and subtracting to our list.  Unfortunately some very popular magazines such as People and Sports Illustrated are not possible for us to subscribe to with this service, but we still offer a diverse range of selections from The Economist to Good Housekeeping to Popular Science to Smithsonian. 

           

All patrons need to do is register with their library card and then they can download these magazines.  There is no return date, and if you wish to download them to your computer, you can keep them as long as you want. 

           

Bridgeport is the smallest, population-wise of the members of the public library contingent of the consortia, but we out-circulated all the other libraries expect Kanawha County Public Library in Zinio.  Considering that Morgantown is more than ten times our population that is pretty impressive.  The most popular magazine to download were copies of Martha Stewart Living followed by Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, Country Living, Newsweek, Family Circle and Woman’s Day. 

           

You can easily access Zinio through the City of Bridgeport’s webpage by clicking through to the library and then on to electronic services.