May 30, 2008
Research Libraries Embrace E-Books
Sixty-nine percent of university research libraries plan to increase spending on e-books over the next two years, according to a recent study published by Primary Research Group Inc. This finding and others were based on a survey of 45 research libraries in countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan.
Clearly e-book technology has improved dramatically in a short period of time. Only a year-and-a-half-ago college librarians were saying that e-books were not ready for the campus environment.
The study shows that the larger the library the more interested it is in purchasing e-books. And it also shows that foreign libraries are more attracted to e-books, than libraries in the U.S.—Andrea L. Foster
Posted on Friday May 30, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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A dream come true… no special reserves, no waiting lists, no relying on inadequate indexing, 24/7 availability, quicker accessibility upon publication, what’s not to like?
— Robert Killoren Jun 2, 07:57 AM #
We should keep in mind that some types of books — encyclopedias, dictionaries, other reference books — seem to be more “friendly” as e-books than monographs, novels, etc.
— Dick Grefe Jun 2, 08:31 AM #
Novels are very friendly as e-books. I’ve read lots of them on my e-book reader. There’s really no type of book that isn’t e-book friendly. Users want more options.
— Stephen Leary Jun 2, 08:43 AM #
Books are tactile, so they provide comfort for people with nothing better to hold. As the physical library become increasingly irrelevant, it may not be long before the physical campus is important to anyone.
— Doug Jun 2, 09:13 AM #
One reason that academic books have not made the transition to electronic form more rapidly is the problems publishers encounter in clearing digital rights for third-party copyrighted material, especially art images and especially those that are “orphan works” where the owners cannot be readily identified or located. There is no easy fix to these problems, so don’t expect a flood of academic e-books anytime soon, particularly in image-intensive fields.
— Sandy Thatcher Jun 2, 10:12 AM #
As a Librarian at a state university one issue that we face is COST. Most publishers are charging substantially more for the e version of books, especially Reference books, than they charge for the print copy. No paper or binding costs, no shipping costs, once the book is formatted the expense of the book should go down, right??? When considering a multi volume reference set costing several thousands of dollars in print the doubling of the price for the e version can be prohibitive. Another issue is content some titles loose content as they are transfered into an e-book because of copyright issues. Do you go online with a trusted historical run of a title and loose up to 30% of the content because of a dispute over the copyright of some essays. Most Libraries can not afford in these cases to buy both. I understand the value of 24/7, I understand the value of multiple user access (some publishers restrict access to one user at a time just like the print version) but … sometimes twice the cost of print. What gives?
— cb Jun 2, 03:12 PM #
Are those libraries in the larger academic world buying these [more expensive] e-books providing “e-reader” units for the patronage? That’s an added expense for us in smaller institutions. Our patronage, too, seems still weary of reading “on the screen.” I’ve read a few novels on my Palm and find it not an unpleasant experience, but when I mention that I do read in those things I get a puzzled look.
— Andrew A. Jun 2, 03:49 PM #
And what happens when a major e-book vendor goes out of business? Will the libraries own the digital content in a format that allows them to continue to offer access without the support of the vendor?
— eb Jun 3, 12:36 PM #
We recently did a survey of ebook usage on our campus, and there was a demand for versions that download to e-readers, but do academic vendors allow that?
— Gwen Jun 3, 02:05 PM #
Of course, there is a major question of ‘what is an e-book’. The kind of e-book experience Amazon sell via the Kindle is very different to that of using a reference book online.
In terms of cost – the increased cost of e-books is a relatively straightforward economic calculation – the publishers calculate they will sell less ‘copies’ of the e-book so they need to charge more to make their margins. Even with this, many publishers are reluctant to put their textbooks online as the potential loss of revenue from students who currently buy a print copy is very large.
I’m not convinced that the technology is the changing factor here – it is more around the models of access and the acceptance from the users and librarians that is driving the uptake of e-books – not the tech.
— Owen Stephens Jun 6, 03:56 AM #