A bird’s-eye view of academic library ebooks, outlining how different considerations can affect the decisions that libraries make regarding this format. Presented at GaCOMO12 by Sofia Slutskaya and Tessa Minchew.
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The Ebook, The Whole Ebook, and Nothing But The Ebook: A Holistic View of Ebooks for Undergraduate Academic Libraries
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
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• Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)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(Unpublished Survey)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.
4.
5.
6.
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 Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)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 Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)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 Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)
Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)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 Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)
Ebooks - The Georgia Academic Librarians' Perspective (Unpublished Survey)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 Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)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 Ebooks in GPC Libraries: An Opinion Survey (Unpublished)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