While OverDrive has become a part of the public library landscape since it was introduced in 2002, for the academic world this downloadable ebook and audiobook service is still only available at a relatively small number of institutions. In August 2012 Cornell University Law Library implemented a one-year pilot of the service for the Cornell Law School community, and in October Cornell University Library decided to open the pilot up to the larger Cornell population and to expand the offerings from current popular fiction and non-fiction to language learning material, study guides, and career resources. Integrating OverDrive’s content and service into the current workflow of the library has presented many challenges and has had an impact across the system including technical services, IT, collection development, and user services. Looking at both the initial pilot in the Law School and the larger university-wide implementation this session will address the challenges of implementing seamless user access, negotiating new ways of selecting material, promoting the service, and supporting the user experience. We will also present usage data and user feedback developed to assess the viability of offering this service in the future.
