E-books David Whitehair, senior product manager, OCLC T


he first challenge for libraries that is routinely mentioned is the rapidly-growing investment required for e-books. From a staff standpoint, there can be many systems that must interact within the workflow for e-books. This might include several databases for


tracking, additional


toolsets for acquisitions, data management and communication. It should be noted that the number of “systems” can be far greater depending on the library’s demographics – for example, consortial memberships, branch locations, size, and type. We have also seen many cases where the management of e-books includes multiple manual steps and toolsets, including email records, and spreadsheets. The


lack of integration summarises the challenges – both within the


e-book workflow and to outside systems (financial, student information etc.) and organisations. The goal is to have a ‘system’ and/or set of services that are unified and provide sufficient analytical information to support


effective collection decisions.


Libraries ask us to provide high-quality metadata – comprehensive, current and regularly updated – for e-books across a number of providers. They also ask for improved services for patron-driven acquisition, interlending, and systems that provide end to end integration of the e-book workflow. The latter refers to services support from selection to discovery (flexible and


‘Ultimately, the user wants fast access to the materials, in the form they need’


fast access by users) and analytics that support each phase of this cycle. Ultimately, the user wants fast access from


the starting point of their search (e.g. Google, Amazon) to the materials, in the form they need. Ideally, the community should experience this via the library in as easy a way as they do from other sources. The challenges with delivery include: finding the materials, by desired search terms or perhaps evaluative content such as TOCs or reviews; obtaining them, which frequently requires access via suppliers’ web site; and using the materials on their device of choice.


FEATURE


Constance Malpas, program officer, OCLC Research E


-books are a significant concern for academic libraries. Recent research found e-books to be the number-one priority of academic library managers in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Yet, even as research libraries are investing more of their budgets in e-resources, print books still constitute a significant part of research library collections. From a resource allocation perspective, it’s not uncommon for US research libraries to spend 70 per cent or more of the acquisitions budget on licensed content, so we expect to see the balance in library holdings shift toward ‘e’ as well. But there is a supply-side dimension: academic publishers have not moved to electronic formats as rapidly as some other sectors. Across the academic library sector, we see a shift toward shared approaches to collections in print and digital formats; the workflows needed to manage local e-book collections are at odds with these new approaches. Integrating e-book collections into library operations is not just ensuring that these materials are made visible, available and useful alongside legacy collections – it’s how e-books fit in the larger institutional environment, the degree to which they support new models of distance education, and digital scholarship.


Also, as more academic libraries experiment with patron-driven or demand-driven acquisition models for e-books, there are some issues with calibrating those ad hoc acquisitions with the


www.researchinformation.info @researchinfo


more intentional or curatorial approach of subject bibliographers. There is a budget aspect, but also an organisational dimension as some staff view the purchasing models as threatening to academic librarians. Academic print collections continue to grow alongside e-book collections, but there is a more deliberate effort from institutions to invest in different formats. Among research libraries, there is still concern about the preservation of licensed e-book content and this sometimes means institutions acquiring print and electronic versions of content as a safeguard. This strategy comes with a downside, as it diminishes the library’s ability to increase its


‘Among research libraries there is still concern about the preservation of licensed e-book content’


collection. We see more libraries working hard to leverage shared preservation infrastructure, so that they can invest in content. The emergence of the shared HathiTrust digital repository is important here, representing an effort by research libraries to fill a gap in the preservation infrastructure, and enable a progressive rationalisation of local print collections.


With respect to the impact of e-book availability on demand for and use of print books, opinions differ and evidence is scarce. Also, popular titles are more likely to be available as e-books than specialist monographs. Thus, the marginal increase in demand for ‘long tail’ books republished in digital formats


may be difficult to detect.


There is clearly demand for services that enable libraries to integrate e-book collections into


local discovery systems and shared


catalogues. We are developing partnerships and technologies that automate some of this work for libraries, by aggregating metadata and licence terms for major e-book collections and making those available as a shared resource. The interesting challenge that is emerging with e-books (and with the growing corpus of digitised books) is the need for management systems that understand the relationships between print, digitised and licensed versions of the same content. This is critical for research libraries, as they have limited institutional resources to work with and are expected to build broad – if not comprehensive – collections. The motivation to limit redundant investment in content in these various formats is very high, and the need to provide discovery and delivery solutions that can sort out the relationships between print, licensed and digital is great.


APR/MAY 2013 Research Information 21


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