Trialling OverDrive

Before going ahead with the full eBook integration provided by OverDrive, it is now possible to trial it first, allowing you to evaluate the system before purchasing the full version. The details in this topic demonstrate how to go about enabling the OverDrive trial and show how to search for resources.

Bear in mind that there are limitations to using the trial version of OverDrive and MLS recommend to check out these limitations before importing the trial content. For details of these limitations click here.

- Enabling the trial

- Importing the OverDrive content

- Searching for Resources

- Searching for Resources - using Page Views

- Searching for Resources - using Quick Search

- Limitations of the OverDrive trial

- Disabling the trial

Enabling the Trial

It is really easy to enable the trial version of OverDrive and get started. The steps shown below explain how to start the trial and download the resources into your catalogue.

Although it is not essential, it is recommended to perform these steps at the end of the day because whilst the resources are being imported, the system may be slower to respond than normal.

·Open the Management page and select Settings / Module Settings / OverDrive Settings... from the menu at the top.

·Tick the box labelled Enable trial. Leave Website ID, Library IB and ILS Name empty. These configuration settings are only required if the full version is being used.

The trial data/collections can be removed at any time by un-ticking the Enable Trial check box. Once this is done and the settings saved, the resources are then removed from the system. This may take a few hours. For more information see the topic Disabling the OverDrive Trial.

·Select a collection to choose the types of resources to import into the library system as part of the trial. You can choose to import a collection of resources aimed at Primary schools resources, aimed at Secondary schools or both of these, by selecting All.

·Click OK to save the settings.

After this is clicked the trial content does not automatically download into the catalogue. This needs to be configured to run on the scheduler as described in the next part of this guide.

Importing the OverDrive Content

The OverDrive resources are not automatically downloaded into Management, this needs to be configured using the scheduler. MLS recommend that this is carried out at the end of the day as it may take a while to run through and may slow down the system. Instructions on configuring this are below.

·In Management, click Schedule from the tools menu.

·Click the Settings icon next to the Catalogue Enrichment task.

·Tick Import OverDrive resource

Then click OK.

·Click the green Run Now icon for the Catalogue Enrichment task and the resources should start to import into your catalogue.

Searching for Resources in the trial

Once imported into your catalogue, Overdrive content will appear as part of any normal search, when a match is found. However, if you want to look specifically for eBooks, you can use the methods below to find only eBook-based resources.

Firstly, to find the content, you must be able to recognise the content that is actually from Overdrive. All the content which is from the Overdrive platform will have an addition to the title, to signify that this is where it is from:

If the resource is a sample, this will be included in the title, as well as showing a sample banner across the book cover:

Searching using Page Views

When the trial is enabled, there are pre-set page views that will return all eResource content in your library. The steps below demonstrate how to search using a Page View.

·From the welcome screen, click the Search icon or the search tab.

·Next, click on Views to bring up a list of page views and then click the eBooks page view.

·When clicked, you will be presented with all content in your catalogue that is catalogued as an eBook, including Overdrive content.

In management, there is an additional view called ‘Overdrive eBooks’, which only shows resources that are from OverDrive (excluding any eBooks that have been manually added). This can be added as a page view to the home page if desired, see the the topic Making a View available on the Home Page for instructions.

Searching using Quick Search

Locating OverDrive resources via Quick Search can be achieved by typing the keyword "Overdrive" into the search box on the home page. Note that if you have a title that is not from OverDrive but has that word in a field, it will also be included in the results.

Applicable eBook resources will also display in other searches performed on the system, such as when searching for subjects like English, Science, History etc. It is possible to use the filter to see how many resources are returned from a particular resource type, showing the total belonging to Book, Hardware, eBooks and any other resource types. As a result, using the filter allows you to see how many eBooks have been returned from a search.

·Perform a quick search by typing on a word into the search bar. In this example, the word science was typed in.

Notice that the filter icon shows at the bottom left corner (highlighted as 2. above).

·In the search results, click the filter icon to load the list of resource types that are returned. In the example below, 220 eBooks have been returned in the search.

To remove resource types from the filter, click a resource type in the list. In this example, click every resource type apart from eBook and click Apply.

·You will then be presented with all eBook content that matches the search criteria.

Limitations of the trial version

There are of course limitations to using the trial, these are mentioned below.

·The titles added to the catalogue are fixed.

With the full integration, you are able to purchase resources from the OverDrive marketplace and add this to your eBook library. When using the trial version, only a fixed selection of resources (a mixture of full eBooks, sample pages from premium titles and audio books) are added to the system.

·The collection you select will determine the quantity and titles are added to the system. When using the Primary collection (resources aimed at Primary Schools), there are 1055 resources added to the catalogue. When selecting the Secondary collection (resources aimed at Secondary Schools) there are 2538 resources.

In the full version, resources can be purchased from the OverDrive Marketplace and are automatically downloaded into your library system.

·The evaluation version is limited to 100 current downloads across the whole system. The full integration has no restrictions on the amount of downloads.

·Each resource that has been downloaded is only active for 7 days. Like any eBook, when the expiration period expires, the resource is automatically removed on the device where it was downloaded. Free trial users cannot return these items. Whilst they can be returned from Management, the return is not processed on OverDrive and as a result the users must wait for the 7 day loan period to expire before a resource becomes available for anyone else.

Removing OverDrive Resources / Disabling the Trial

If you wish to disable the trial (which prevents additional eBooks from importing) and remove all of the trial resources, see the instructions in the topic Disabling the OverDrive Trial.

It may be desirable to remove certain resources from the trial. As they are essentially catalogued in the same way as other resources, they can be removed like them too. See the topic Removing and Deleting Resources for instructions on how to remove resources from the catalogue.