Presentation given at the 24th annual COMO 2012 Conference in Macon, GA by Sofia Slutskaya and Tessa Minchew. A bird’s-eye view of academic library ebooks, outlining how different considerations can affect the decisions that libraries make regarding this format.

1. The Ebook, The Whole Ebook,
and Nothing But The Ebook:
A Holistic View of Ebooks
for Undergraduate
Academic Libraries
Sofia Slutskaya
Catalog Librarian
Tessa Minchew
Systems & Electronic
Content Librarian
GaCOMO – October 5, 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/6457180637

2. Finding Balance

3. Ebook Surveys
• Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)
• Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective
(Unpublished Survey)
• ebrary’s 2011 Global Student E-book Survey
– http://www.ebrary.com/corp/newspdf/ebrary_student_survey_report.pdf
• HighWire Press 2009 Librarian eBook Survey
– http://highwire.stanford.edu/PR/HighWireEBookSurvey2010.pdf
• Primary Research Group. Library Use of eBooks. 2012 ed.

7. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

8. Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)

9. E-Resource Acquisitions @ GPC
• 5 campuses, so major e-resource purchases are
committee-based & annual only
• Trial selection in January/February
• Trials in March
• Decisions in mid-April
• Adds/drops take place on July 1

10. Ebook Acquisitions @ GPC
• Ebooks part of annual process until recently
– Mixed bag of purchase & access models
• Early CY11: Tentative pilot of campus-level ebook
purchases didn’t gain a lot of ground
• Early CY12: Subcommittee formed to research
purchase models and make recommendations
• FY13: Piloting a PDA project with EBSCO

11. Ebook Acquisition Models
• Purchase with perpetual access
• Subscription
• Pay‐per‐use
• Lease to own
• Patron‐driven acquisition
• Bundled with other content (e.g., print copy)
• Bulk purchasing (i.e. a collection of ebooks)

12. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)
Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)
HighWire Press 2009 Librarian eBook Survey

13. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)
Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)

14. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

15. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

16. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

17. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

18. Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)

19. Preference For Ebooks Over Print
2011 2008
48 % very often or often 51 % very often or often
32 % sometimes 32 % sometimes
20 % rarely or never 17 % rarely or never
Reasons for Never Using Ebooks 2011 2008
I do not know where to find ebooks 47 % 58 %
I prefer printed books 44 % 46 %
ebrary’s 2011 Global Student E-book Survey

20. How important are the following ebook features?
Characteristics 2011 2008
Anytime access 91 % 86 %
Search 88 % 87 %
Off-campus access 88 % 82 %
Ability to download to 86 % 80 %
workstation
Multiple user access 83 % 81 %
Zoom and scale 75 % 65 %
Copy and paste 73 % 75 %
Highlighting 70 % 62 %
Printing 69 % 75 %
Automatic citations 63 % 56 %
ebrary’s 2011 Global Student E-book Survey

21. E-Resources Statistics @ GPC
• Statistics compiled monthly & manually using
vendor reports & Excel.
• LibGuides used to relay statistical data, trial
information, etc. to the selection committee.
• ERMes used to manage:
– Database information
– Vendor data
– Admin/stats URLs and logins
– Payment history & renewal dates

22. ICOLC
• International Coalition of Library Consortia
• 150 international library consortia
• Created vendor guidelines for statistical
measures (numbers of
sessions, searches, menu selections, full-
content units accessed, and turnaways)
• Guidelines are not mandatory & somewhat
open to vendor interpretation

23. COUNTER
• Counting Online Usage of Networked
Electronic Resources
• Standards to facilitate recording and reporting
of online usage statistics in
consistent, credible and compatible way
• http://www.projectcounter.org

24. SUSHI
• Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting
Initiative
• Joint project between COUNTER and NISO
• Protocol to facilitate the automated
harvesting and consolidation of usage
statistics from different vendors
• http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi

25. COUNTER v. ILS Stats
• Both stats help assess usage of certain areas
and areas that need more coverage
• 1 charge /= 1 request or search
• COUNTER gives a more detailed view of usage
such as chapters & entries viewed
• COUNTER allows more in-depth collection
analysis and picture of cost-per-use

26. Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)

27. To Classify or Not to Classify
• Our Perspective:
– Pro: Collection development & assessment
– Con: Added time & effort for an item that doesn’t
require a shelving device
• Our Patron’s Perspective:
– Pro: Some of them still use call # browse
– Con: Confusing to patrons who might look for the
resource on the shelf (we should always use a
shelving prefix or suffix)

28. Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)

29. Misc. Techie Issues
• MARC records in catalog?
– Provider neutral? Take what you can get?
• Separate locations?
– By vendor? By collection?
• Item records?
– Don’t circulate through ILS
– Is it worth it just for display?
• Local subject/genre headings?
– Enhanced access for low effort (if using MarcEdit)

30. What’s Next?
• Address technical issues
– No in-house programming expertise, so we are trying
to minimize number of platforms
• Learn more about patron perspective
– Survey GPC faculty, staff, & student population
• Create standardized collection development
policy for ebooks
– Address needs of all groups, internal & external
• Step up marketing & training for existing
resources
– For both internal & external groups

31. Questions?

32. Slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/tminchew/
Sofia Slutskaya
sofia.slutskaya@gpc.edu
678.891.3674
Tessa Minchew
tessa.minchew@gpc.edu
678.891.3671
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/6457180637