The WVDELI (West Virginia Digital Entertainment Library Initiative) celebrated its 12th birthday this summer.  The DELI consists 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 was established in 2008 with six members that in the following years grew to eleven.  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 ten libraries 24/7.  So far, the WVDELI has almost 80,000 items and the members have spent nearly 3 million dollars.  Circulation reached 50,000 items per month last spring.  This size collection and circulation would never be possible for an individual library. 

 

This level of success presents problems.  The amount of time users must wait on an item has more than tripled.  One of the solutions is the Advantage collection.  Most of the members of the WVDELI offer this service which enables individual libraries to purchase in-demand items that can only be accessed by their cardholders.  For instance, the new book, “A Time for Mercy” by John Grisham already has multiple holds.  Bridgeport has already purchased several copies for its Advantage collection which should dramatically lessen your wait time.  

 

The reason the members don’t purchase a lot more copies of these in-demand items is the price since publishers charge amounts for some eBooks such as $84.00 and $60.00 even though the price of a physical book is $25.95 or $7.95.  The only thing that you must do to see these Advantage titles is to sign into your account at the beginning of your session.  The reason I recommend signing in first is that some titles that are owned by Bridgeport Advantage won’t show up on the consortia page unless you are signed in. 

 

And remember, the WVDELI is available 24/7 and just requires a library card and Internet.  You can safely access this collection from the safety of your couch.