A librarian’s perspective on e-books

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