E-books will make up more than half of Saint Leo University’s library collection, starting this fall.
With the acquisition of a new e-book database, 53 percent of the library’s collection will consist of online material. Students are able to download e-books to their computers, smartphones, and iPads.
“To me, this is the way all universities will need to go,” said Brent Short, director of library services.
Mr. Short says the biggest benefit of e-books is that they are accessible anywhere and anytime. Expanding online material is particularly important at Saint Leo, where the majority of the student body is based off the campus, he said.
“We have people in the military that are on station in Iraq, so obviously, online resources are crucial for them,” he added.
Saint Leo’s library contains 116,000 e-books and 106,000 print titles. Although the library continues to add to its print collection, Mr. Short said that more money is going toward ordering e-books.
Since the library has made certain reference resources available online, he said, he has observed a sharp decline in student use of print equivalents.
“If you have the same reference title online and in print, the overwhelming tendency is to use the online version and pretty much ignore the print version,” said Mr. Short.
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8 Responses to E-Books Will Make Up Majority of Saint Leo U.’s Library Come Fall
11159995 - July 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I wonder how much students print out from these e-books to read, rather than reading it all online?—Sandy Thatcher
gavinmoodie - July 13, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I suspect many readers print a lot of screen material to read on paper. Some even still print emails. But in time people will change to reading on screen, and all the talk about the look and feel of paper will become as anachronistic as nostalgically reminiscing about the quality of reading scrolls.
22192658 - July 13, 2010 at 7:56 pm
It’s important to remember the nature of St. Leo’s student body and that the majority of it is off-campus. Perhaps we will (eventually) reach a point where the majority of people will prefer to read only from a screen (and we have resolved all health considerations for doing so), but that still remains a long time away. I am at a liberal arts college where print is still very much relevant. As for students still printing much of what they see on the screen, our annual budget for keeping our public computer printer operating would certainly support this view.
erikchristopher - July 14, 2010 at 11:33 am
Some will still print a lot, but depending on the eBook platform that the library is using, many will have DRM associated with it. Meaning they can only print or copy and paste x amount. This will limit printing and save on paper, but also, by copying and pasting, many patrons could take the content they need and use it in a paper, share it or use however they need to. Just all depends on the eBook system they are using.It’s also all about getting the patrons to change their mindset on how to use eBooks, it’ll take a while.Erik
zenbrarian - July 14, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The way e-Books are currently licensed to academic libraries could prove much more expensive and cumbersome than traditional print. First, even after a library purchase an e-book, they do not generally have the electronic data file on their server. It resides on the vendor’s server and vendors have started charging increasing amounts for electronic storage. In our case we have purchased electronic materials and the vendor has simply decided to start charging increasing amounts storage fees. You don’t own these e-books the way you own a print book. They come with license agreements which can be ammended.However, a much bigger issue is that libraries cannot interlibrary loan these materials. They cannot be shared. If suddenly, our institution could not borrow books from other libraries and we had to buy all the books that were needed by our professors and students, our costs would shoot through the roof. Academic libraries now face the risk of becoming isolated silos of information. That is an extremely expensive proposition. I have even seen some libraries where visitors from other institutions physically come to their library and even then cannot access the e-books owned by that library. That is because some systems require a current student or faculty id from the licensed institution. Even those few publishers who would allow interlibrary loan of their books within their license agreements (very rare indeed) have no mechanism to allow for it. Unless these license agreement issues are addressed and a technical mechanism allowing for e-books to be loaned is created, it seems that this model of access is similar to the one libraries had in the Middle Ages: books chained to their shelves so that they could not “travel” more than a few feet… These technologies have the potential to make more books available to many more people, but they can also be implemented in a way that can take us back 500 years.
diplomatic - July 14, 2010 at 2:14 pm
“Informations wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive.” (Brand, 1985) I’m all for e-readers and e-journals. They are cheaper and faster. I think the portability, and the speed and price of e-books represents a win for students. It should anyway. The sharing culture should thrive. Probably every department Xerox machine has seen altruistic use in the spirit of democratizing knowledge. Now even the poorest folks can finally have access to the high-quality clarified knowledge of the Ivies and other high quality educational materials thru open courses. To be able to afford access or otherwise gain access to a computer lab, library, or personal computer, laptop or Kindle type e-reader device, (well much of the world still doesn’t have a telephone or car, nevermind e-journal subscription and fancy laptop as an enrolled student.) I’ve never understood people printing reams of powerpoint and numerous 25 page articles when they can just tote a 1 1/2 pound laptop around and have instant access to all that and more on their LCD screens. These are technological advances that should by all accounts serve the greater good of disseminating knowledge as a democratizing process. Knowledge wants to be free. Anything less is just elitism and insulating those few who can afford it.Now, having said that, and also having worked for an academic publisher that scans materials from books and compiles them into coursereaders. This is a growing trend. Books are made available in electronic and print, (and guess what the electronic format is very popular!) Electronic resources are fast becoming more rich in media and interactive, and faster and cheaper delivery makes this a boon to students, and a problem only to those publishing and bookstor MBA’s trying to squeeze every dime, and every (fiscal) quarter. Sure administrators will still wonder how to raise tuition to afford the fanciest journals, or better yet why not come up with sharing agreements and interlibrary loans for e-Journals. Share the cost. Share the knowledge. Share the journals. Maybe print textbook publishers after having their way with a captive audience with their 150 dollar- every year editions have seen this coming. Will they finally start giving more value for the poor hard working student dollar or are they just front-loading their risk? It’s a matter of how fast those scanners can get all those library collections online when everyone will deeply benefit. Maybe the massive university libraries are musty repositories that must be put to good use electronically also. Google has probably done more good for DIY learners than all the universities combined at this point.
garlibrar - July 14, 2010 at 2:18 pm
How will they measure the success of these e-books? We’re often enthusiastic about the idea of them, but still need to show that students actually learn better.
billso - July 14, 2010 at 9:33 pm
#7, hopefully SLU will do some specific evaluations and surveys regarding the e-book program. It sounds interesting.