OverDrive Is Selling Publishers the Data of How Deep Your Patrons Read

BLUF

OverDrive just launched Amplify, a publisher intelligence product built on behavioral data from hundreds of millions of monthly reading sessions across Libby and Sora. What readers search, borrow, and how far they read is now packaged and sold to publishers. OverDrive says the data is aggregated and anonymized. They do not define either word.

TL;DR

OverDrive launched a product called Amplify that sells publisher intelligence built from your patrons' reading behavior. Your library is the data source. Your patrons are the product.

My version

I was deep down the Librar Labs research hole when I stumbled upon an ad in Publishers Weekly. One thing I learned in legaltech marketing is that you can buy these trade publication sponsored posts that look like real articles, interviews, thought pieces. They're designed to match the look and feel of the real thing. The tell on this one is at the bottom: “Sponsored by OverDrive.”

In my career as a public librarian and vendor, I have never heard nor used the term “post-acquisition performance data.” Because in the Libby and Sora apps, performance data is reader behavioral data. And we don't track reader behavioral data. That's why the phrase sounded so out of place.

But inside Libby and Sora, anything you do can be turned into a number. A search, a borrow, how far you read before you set the book down: each one is a data point that gets measured and tracked.

In Potash's own presentation last week, he asked the audience:

“Who was the industry's most-read author in March? Not most sold. Most read. We can tell you what readers searched, borrowed, and how deep they read.”

One more time for the folks in the back. They said they can sell you:

• What readers searched
• What readers borrowed
• How deep they read

This is exactly why my family does not use the Libby or Sora app.