Board debates limiting Libby/OverDrive access for secondary property owners amid rising digital demand

Library staff presented a substantial review of circulation rules for digital collections and limited accounts, arguing the board should tighten Libby/OverDrive access for secondary property owners and nonresident accounts to promote equitable statewide access.

"I really think, and I'm gonna propose it to the other library directors, that we all ought to just say, you gotta have one account that's at your home," Daniel Markley said, describing a concern that patrons holding multiple library accounts across counties can multiply their holds and access, pushing lower-income patrons further down hold lists.

Markley detailed limitations of the Libby/OverDrive system, noting it does not track duplicate accounts reliably and that, in testing, category-blocking could prevent a nonresident account from accessing certain shared collections. He cited statewide spending on OverDrive—"Last year, Utah library spent $1,500,000 in OverDrive... and another 400,000 [from the state library]"—and said Duchesne spent heavily on Hoopla the previous month: "I spent about $1,800 in Hoopla last month." He proposed directing nonresident or second-property users to access digital collections from their home library system and suggested changing checkout durations for tablets and videos from two weeks to three weeks.

No final decision was taken; the item was presented for debate and will be considered at a subsequent meeting. Board members asked questions about the system's ability to detect duplicate accounts and about service impacts for homeless and student accounts.