Ebook Availability RevisitedA quantitative analysis of the

2012 ebook aggregator marketplace

John McDonald & Jason Price, PhD CIO & AVP Interim Library DirectorClaremont Colleges Library

slideshare.net: Charleston price and mcdonald 2008

Today’s Outline

1) availability of print book content in the eBook aggregator marketplace: 2008 v 2012

2) eBook Aggregator market share, depth & breadth

1) Full Collections (EBL, Ebrary, EBSCO, MyILibrary)

2) Subscribed collections (Ebrary & EBSCO)

3) Publisher coverage

4) University Press collections (UPCC & UPSO)

3) Hathi Trust (& Google Books) - for perspective

2008 Study

Research Question (from a campus administrator): “If you were to stop buying print books today (i.e. in 2008), what proportion of your purchases could be replaced with ebooks?”

Print book purchases (Cat date 2006-2007)• Data from 5 Libraries• 78,000 books total• Publication year ranged from 1912 – 2007, 82% were from 2005-07

Ebook Marketplace Data from 4 eBook vendors • EBL, Ebrary, MyILibrary & NetLibrary source files• 220,000 books total• Publication year ranged from 1901 – 2009, 24% were from 2005-07

2006/7 pBook purchases available as eBooks by Vendor

Library Ebrary Sub EBL Ebrary MyILibrary NetLibrary At least one

C 4.9% 11.9% 13.7% 11.4% 23.3% 27.2%

A 5.4% 10.3% 10.3% 10.8% 18.3% 21.3%

D 4.7% 15.4% 15.4% 11.8% 25.0% 29.4%

L 4.7% 14.6% 14.2% 9.7% 23.2% 27.3%

S 7.1% 13.9% 13.5% 8.0% 23.0% 26.9%

5% 13% 26%23%13% 10%

2008 ≈ 30% pBook purchases available as eBooks from

major aggregators

DatasetsPRINT BOOKS• 2006 and 2011 pub date• Data from 4 libraries,

combined• 34,000 books total

• 21,000 from 2006 • 13,000 from 2011

• Unique IDs

• OCLC number & WorkID (instead of ISBN matching)

ELECTRONIC BOOKS• Aggregator Marketplace

from ebook KnowledgeBase* w/ISBNs

• ISBNs run against xISBN API to get OCLCnum & then against xOCLCnum API to get Work ID

• Numbers to be announced…

2012 “repeat” of this study

Thanks to Sam Kome for untold hours of data wrangling

Audience PollWhat proportion of 2011 pub date purchases are available as ebooks? (vs 2008 availability)

a) Fewer (<20%)

b) About the same (20-35%)

c) More (35% - 50%)

d) Way more ( > 50%)

pBook purchases available as eBooks by Vendor

YearEbrary

SubEBL Ebrary

MyI-Library

EBSCOAt least

one

2008 7% 15% 19% 17% 20% 24%

2012 6% 26% 33% 25% 28% 37%

So… 37% of 2011 Pub date purchases were available in the 2012 ebook aggregator marketplace

YBP Select category comparison

2006 & 2011 Print BooksZero

aggregators At least one

Basic-Essential 75% 25%

Basic-Recommended 77% 23%

Research-Essential 60% 40%

Research-Recommended 61% 39%

Specialized 61% 39%

Supplementary 75% 25%

Part 2: Switching Gears…

to a Quantitative analysis of the ebook aggregator marketplace

Audience poll

How much has the size of the ebook aggregator marketplace increased in the past four years?

a) 10%b) 25%c) 50%d) 100%

Total Ebooks w/ unique eISBNs

+22%

-17%

46%

16%

+13%

2008 vs 2012Ebook Aggregator marketplace overlap

Depth: # of Books available by year

# of Books available by year

Depth: # of Books available by year

Aggregator Subscription Ebook Collections Analytical Faceoff

State University of New York Press 33041EbraryAC 602Common 1353EbscoES 3109

National Academies Press 33011EbraryAC 3301

ABC-CLIO 29033EbscoES 2903

Routledge 28371EbraryAC 9542Common 1883

Cambridge University Press 26981EbraryAC 4642Common 13793EbscoES 855

Brill Academic Publishers 26421EbraryAC 172Common 18473EbscoES 778

ABC-Clio - Greenwood Publishing 24503EbscoES 2450

Oxford University Press 23951EbraryAC 2395

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 23293EbscoES 2329

Wiley 21941EbraryAC 14952Common 699

MIT Press 21861EbraryAC 1302Common 6383EbscoES 1418

University of California Press 20391EbraryAC 2112Common 7693EbscoES 1059

Ashgate Publishing Group 17161EbraryAC 302Common 1686

Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd / Books15653EbscoES 1565

Palgrave Macmillan 14861EbraryAC 1486

Continuum International Publishing 14371EbraryAC 4692Common 968

John Benjamins Publishing Co. 13683EbscoES 1368

World Bank Publications 12951EbraryAC 1295

Sage Publications, Ltd. 12753EbscoES 1275

University of Chicago Press 12731EbraryAC 1273

University of Minnesota Press 12521EbraryAC 1252

Emerald Group Publishing Ltd 11801EbraryAC 10582Common 122

John Benjamins Publishing Company 10901EbraryAC 32Common 1087

Elsevier Science 10603EbscoES 1060

Indiana University Press 10381EbraryAC 1202Common 4643EbscoES 454

Kluwer Academic Publishers 10301EbraryAC 1030

Greenwood Press 10241EbraryAC 2762Common 748

Jessica Kingsley Publishers 10141EbraryAC 832Common 7963EbscoES 135

Subscribed Collections Summary

• 33% Ebrary : 27% in Common : 40% EBSCO

• Ebsco’s advantage comes from older ebooks• 1980-1999

• Many publishers subscription ebooks are only available through one aggregator• Ebsco – ABC Clio, Nova Science, J. Benjamin,

SAGE, etc.• Ebrary – Nat. Acad., Oxford, Palgrave, World Bank,

etc.

• Subject coverage is relatively similar

Subscription cost less than a penny on the dollar per year!

Subscribable Ebrary Ebooks = 77,482 purchase price $5,670,776 (single-user price)

≤ $3.75/FTE… so for 5000 fte = $18750/year% of list price per year = 0.33% (multi-user price)Years to buy = 300+ years!

Ebsco subscription pricing is similar…

Q.E.D. If you are investing in aggregator ebooks, you should seriously consider both subscription packages, and avoid buying individual books that are (or will be!) available by subscription…

University Press collections

Part 3: Hathi Trust & Google books Putting the Ebook Aggregator Marketplace into stark perspective

Hathi By the

decade

1990-99n = 785,758

1960-69n = 624,845

1970-79n = 722,697

1980-89n = 823,151

Ebook Marketplace is only 1/3 as large as Hathi for 2000-09 books

Google books casts an even longer shadow