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Business Models for E-Books A Look into the Future

Business Models for E-Books A Look into the Future. David Ball UKSG Conference 2007. Summary. Digital natives Current student use of electronic resources The new ecology - virtual learning environments (VLEs) Outcomes of the SUPC tender investigations Where do we go from here?.

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Business Models for E-Books A Look into the Future

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  1. Business Models for E-BooksA Look into the Future David Ball UKSG Conference 2007

  2. Summary • Digital natives • Current student use of electronic resources • The new ecology - virtual learning environments (VLEs) • Outcomes of the SUPC tender investigations • Where do we go from here?

  3. The Digital Natives The average 21-year-old has: • Spent 5,000 hours video-gaming • Sent 250,000 emails/messages • Spent 10,000 hours on a mobile ‘phone • Spent 3,000 hours online “ Their preference is for sharing, staying connected, instantaneity, multi-tasking, assembling random information into patterns, and using technology in new ways.” - Marc Prensky

  4. The Digital Immigrants Are less likely to have: • An iPod or equivalent • Posted material on the web • Created a blog or profile on MySpace • Downloaded content such as music, film • Taken a picture with a mobile ‘phone

  5. Student Use of E-Resources • Tenopir’s survey of surveys shows drivers: • Young users inhabiting electronic world • Convenience – desk top, speed, save/print • Health science library usage: • 28,000 full text downloads; 1800 uses of print (Morse and Clintworth) • Bournemouth University: • 128% rise in full-text downloads over 4 years • Heavy undergraduate use of journal articles • 72% of nursing students’ last access from home

  6. Bournemouth E-Journal Statistics

  7. Bournemouth E-Book Statistics:Ebrary Aug 2006 – Mar 2007 Logins 24,121 Book views 38,611 Titles viewed 9893 Pages viewed 476,102 Pages copied/printed 26,789 Background: Academic Complete Collection of ca. 38k titles, not in OPAC

  8. Bournemouth E-Books Statistics:Lessons • 1.6 book views per login – probably 2-2.5 allowing for null searches? • 20 pages viewed per login – probably more allowing for null searches • 1.1 pages copied/printed per login • Over 10% of book issues • Killer statistic: 26% of titles have been viewed – not in OPAC, not on reading lists

  9. Recent US Research on Undergraduate Usage of E-books • Students prefer e-journal articles to e-books – shorter • Key factor is electronic availability, not publication type • Students read e-books very selectively, not cover to cover • Students are unfamiliar with the OPAC, preferring the web (Hernon et al.)

  10. Memo to Publishers If your content is not available electronically students won’t use it, much less buy it. If students are not using hard copy, libraries will not buy it. “No reading list should have more than two titles on it. Learning is problem/ project/work based.” – new head of business school

  11. Virtual Learning Environments “The components in which learners and tutors participate in ‘online’ interactions of various kinds, including online learning” • Controlled access to curriculum • Tracking student activity and achievement • Support of on-line learning • Communication between the learner, the tutor and others • Links to other administrative systems

  12. VLE as a Transformational Technology • Digital natives • Digital learning environment • Interactions with lecturers, other learners and administrators will be increasingly by electronic means • Core learning resources created by lecturers will be available through VLE • Students’ expectation will be for all learning resources to be so • MyBU

  13. Integrating into the VLE - 1 Pathways to information: • VLE as one-stop-shop • Use of library catalogues/portals will decline • Embed/link to resources at point of need • Encourage use of wide variety of resources • Re-engineer information architecture

  14. Integrating into the VLE - 2 Interaction with students: • Exploit VLE functionality and structures • Integrate into courses, units at point of need • Use quizzes, discussion boards • Virtual classroom for remote students

  15. The Position Today • Existing heavy use of e-journals by undergraduates • Electronic medium the norm for students’ social and leisure pursuits • Electronic medium becoming primary in HE • Need for e-book content

  16. E-Books: Problems and Obstacles • Lack of a clear open standard for operating systems; • Fears about the protection of content and the rights of the content owner in the context of giving users flexibility; • Lack of appropriate content in suitable quantities; • Pricing of titles, software and hardware; • Lack of integration into the general market for books. (Herther)

  17. SUPC E-Books Tender • Developing market place • Virtual Learning Environments • Fluid business models • Mimic hard-copy business models • Trend towards bundling/Big Deal • Avoid what happened with e-journals • Publishers determined business models • Price tied to historical hard-copy spend

  18. Preparing the Specification Aim to provide agreements that: • Were innovative and flexible • Exploited the electronic medium fully • Focused on users’ needs not libraries’ • Encouraged the addition of library-defined content Two distinct requirements: • Requirement A – a hosted e-book service from which institutions can purchase or subscribe to individual titles • Requirement B – a hosted e-book service of content that is specified by the institutions

  19. List Price? • The 3 general aggregators offer pricing based on publisher’s list price • 1190 common titles from 4 publishers were compared • Many titles have no common list price in e-form • Average e-book price for the common titles varied from $99.9 to $102.2, a spread of 2.3%

  20. Prices: Hard Copy vs. E • One aggregator, offering outright purchase and only 1 simultaneous user, allowing for discounts and VAT: • E-book: 155% of list price • Hard copy: 85% of list price • E-book is 82% more expensive • Book budget buys 45% less e-books than hard-copy books

  21. Relative Pricing (Requirement A) • Purchase of 1500 titles • Least expensive 63% of most expensive • Subscription over 3 years to 1500 titles • Least expensive a fraction of most expensive • Most expensive allows only single-user access • Other models: one concurrent user (hard copy); up to ca.320 accesses to title each year

  22. Bespoke Subject Collections(Requirement B) • First subject – nursing; others to be determined • Core lists of 200 and 600 titles prepared by 4 universities and the Royal College of Nursing • Only general aggregators interested • Maximum of 13% available from any one • Aggregators have agreements with some of main publishers

  23. E-Textbooks? • Obvious advantages for libraries: no multiple copies or SLCs, staff savings • BUT 80% of publishers’ textbook revenue is from individuals - not available • How many list titles are textbooks; how many are recommended reading? • Malign influence of US textbook-based reaching?

  24. Contract Award • Requirement A: Ebrary and Proquest Safari • Offer innovative models, value for money, flexibility and academic content of interest to members • Exploit electronic medium in terms of granularity and multi-user access • Requirement B: Ebrary • Flexibility and willingness to work openly • Disappointing progress

  25. JISC E-books Observatory Project • 3-year project 2007-2009 • License collections relevant to courses in business, engineering, medicine, media • Make collections available from Sept 07 to Sept 09 • Deep log analysis Jan-Dec 2008 (See http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/)

  26. Future Business Models Publishers and intermediaries (incl. libraries) have to provide what the end-user wants: • Electronic, electronic, electronic • Focused on user’s perceptions and culture • Focused on content not publication type • Enabling personalisation • Single easy interface for search and retrieval

  27. Future Business Models/2 • Models must be acceptable to and viable for publishers, intermediaries and end-users • Models must be adjusted to VLEs as the predominant means of delivery • Boundaries will shift – e.g. textbooks to course cartridges

  28. Books Were Us “When simple change becomes transformational change, the desire for continuity becomes a dysfunctional mirage” - The Mirage of Continuity (1999) Hawkins & Battin “To remain what it is, the library must change . . . if it does not change, it will not remain what it is” - David Penniman, University at Buffalo

  29. But what do you think?

  30. References R. Everett MLEs and VLEs explained, London, JISC, (2002). Available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=mle_briefings_1 P. Hernon et al. “E-book Use by Students: undergraduates in economics, literature and nurisng”, Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33 (1), pp. 3-13 (2007) N.K. Herther. “The E-book Industry Today: a bumpy road becomes an evolutionary path to market maturity”, The Electronic Library, 23(1), pp. 45-53, (2005). D.H. Morse, W.A. Clintworth. “Comparing Patterns of Print and Electronic Journal Use in an Academic Health Science Library”, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 28, (2000). Available at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00-fall/refereed.html C. Tenopir. Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: an overview and analysis of recent research studies, Washington, Council on Library and Information Resources, (2003). Available at: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf

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