1 / 14

A librarian’s perspective on e-books

A librarian’s perspective on e-books. Terry Bucknell Electronic Resources Manager 28 th June 2007. e-books at the University of Liverpool. Jan 2004 – 6 OUP titles from Ovid – very low take-up Feb 2004 – declined to participate in NoWAL netLibrary agreement (funds, quality concerns)

Download Presentation

A librarian’s perspective on e-books

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. A librarian’s perspective on e-books Terry Bucknell Electronic Resources Manager 28th June 2007

  2. e-books at the University of Liverpool • Jan 2004 – 6 OUP titles from Ovid – very low take-up • Feb 2004 – declined to participate in NoWAL netLibrary agreement (funds, quality concerns) • Oct 2005 – Safari (350 slots, haven’t grown collection due to business model) • Oct 2005 – JISC ACLS History eBooks Project (affordable, critical mass, good take-up) • Oct 2006 – ebrary Academic Complete (ditto but more so!) • 2007 – began purchasing perpetual access titles from ebrary, several other collections (Referex, Knovel, Cambridge Companions Online)

  3. A word about platforms • E-journals • Tend to use publisher’s own platforms rather than 3rd party agent systems (e.g. SwetsWise, EBSCO EJS) • Articles easily discovered through A&I databases, cited refs, Metalib (etc.) • Easy to link to articles through DOI or OpenURL • E-books • Much less support for metasearching, DOIs, OpenURL • Strategy is to acquire as many books as possible on one platform for easy full-text searching across our entire e-books library

  4. Models we’re using – 1 Subscription bundles where unit price is a fraction of purchase price • Critical mass crucial to change user culture • Can’t afford to purchase a critical mass collection until demand / uptake has been proved • As a pay-off for low unit price we accept: • No access rights upon cancellation • Might not get recently published titles • Titles come and titles go • We get what we’re given

  5. Is a subscription bundle worth it? • Our experience of ebrary Academic Complete • October 2006 to May 2007 • Used over 70,000 times • Over 1,000,000 pages viewed • Nearly 50,000 pages printed • Over 35,000 pages copied • Nearly 16,000 e-books used (out of 31,000) • Quality as well as quantity (24 of the Top 50 are titles that we have in print) • Has stimulated demand for e-books at Liverpool • Has filled gap due to low levels of book acquisition in previous period of low budgets

  6. Models we’re using – 2 Outright purchase for perpetual access – for something like the print price (hardback?) • Single-user access is probably enough • Typical usage of a title only lasts 8 minutes or so • We’re not talking about core textbooks here • Full control over exactly which titles we want (and don’t want) • Expect latest titles to be available immediately

  7. Models we’re using – 3 • Safari model • Subscription for a fixed number of slots • Books occupy 0.5 to 2.0 slots • Swap titles once a month • Total rice varies according to number of slots and number of simultaneous users across the whole collection • What’s the problem? • Don’t have time to micro-manage swapping of slots • To grow our collection, need to pay for more slots and for more simultaneous users • Discourages customers from expanding their portfolio • That can’t be good business!

  8. A model we might use… Publishers selling e-books in bulk (Big Deals): • Buy all titles published in one calendar year for: • Very significant discount • ‘Free’ access to titles published in previous years • Useful way to spend end-of-year surpluses • Concerns • Might not be able to afford the offer in subsequent years • How many of the titles will we actually use? • How many would we have chosen to buy individually? • How much would we normally spend on this publisher? • No going back!

  9. Don’t reproduce the printed books model! • Once borrowed, most print books sit unused for nearly all of the time (on shelf, under bed) • e-books allow books to be quickly ‘passed’ from one user to another • So I don’t like: • e-books ‘checked out’ for fixed time periods • Limits on the number of times an e-book can be ‘checked out’ in a year

  10. The ‘New Edition’ problem • Sometimes an essential update that renders previous editions as useless (esp. Law, Medicine) • Sometimes a minor amendment to drive more sales: • Extra chapters • Latest developments added to existing chapters • New pedagogical features • Subscription model: • Subscription should be to latest edition (automated alerts to new editions are essential) • Option to continue accessing previous edition if required for low / no cost • Purchase model: • Tough – need to buy new edition

  11. The textbooks problem • Research monographs • Only expect to sell single copy to a library • Doesn’t matter if it is a print or electronic copy • Textbooks • Potential loss of multiple sales to students if licensed to libraries. Options: • Licence to library at high cost • low take-up? • Licence to library at ‘normal’ cost • Risk multiple losing sales • Students prefer to purchase print copy despite online access? • JISC E-Books Observatory Project • Licence to students directly • On Library’s chosen platform?

  12. Organisational issues • Policies about cataloguing of e-books • New procedures for monthly additions / deletions of subscription bundles • New procedures for ordering individual e-book titles: • Maximum efficiency (paperless) • Generating demand • Would you like the e-book version of that? • Managing demand • Sorry, we can’t get e-books from that publisher • Sorry, we’re not paying another platform fee just to access 1 e-book

  13. The University of Liverpool Strategy } Core texts { Purchase suggestions / recommended background reading } research / background reading

  14. If I was a Publisher… • Publish all titles simultaneously as e-books • Don’t risk losing sales by not providing the specific books that customers want • Sell e-books directly and via 3rd party platforms • Don’t risk losing sales by insisting on a platform • Sell e-books in affordable bundles • Easier to grow income a little from many customers • Reduce need to market individual titles • Once sales have tailed off (i.e. backlist) • Make available through low-cost subscription bundles • Cheap, high quality bundles encourage new customers to the e-books market, opens door to future frontlist sales • Explore direct sales to students on 3rd party platforms

More Related