Electronic books: what they are and what they

are likely to mean for collection management

Linda Taylor

Liverpool Hope University College

What are eBooks?

Exact electronic versions of printed books, including blank pages. It is the “original” used to publish the book, not something created subsequently

can be viewed online on any PC connected to the Internet, no special reader required (only Adobe)

eBooks are available to browse online, Athens authenticated or IP driven

Business model Not like e-journals, still 1 book, 1 reader, while you

browse no one else can use the item.

Initial search screen

List of hits for “library collection” as a Keyword

Bibliographic details and chance to email to yourself

Front page and electronic contents page

Front page and electronic contents page, with chapter 4 expanded

digital

Search results for “digital” within this e book

Occurrences of terms identified against the electronic contents page

Search terms highlighted and adding notes

My list and notes

Advanced search options with boolean operators

What can I do with the e- books?

PDF or HTML formats, 1 page at a time you can: Read Cut and paste Print Save

You can jump to a specific pageYou can add, edit and remove notes associated

with individual items for your own purposesYou can have several books open at once e.g.

to help decide which is better. You can search a dictionary

Anything else?

You can subsequently refine your searchYou can search within an e-book, with the

‘hits’ displayed against the contents pageYou can use wildcards *You can expand bits of the screen by

grabbing and dragging barsYou can change the language of the

interfaceYou can change collection to search e.g.

exclude the ‘free’ items

Anything else?

Adjust the number of items that display per page, for you

Display options: Top matches (Best matches to important fields) Newest first (demonstrates where the latest discourse

is going on) Oldest first (historical perspective) Title (zoom to starting word of title) Author (who is leading the field)

You don’t have to worry about returning them, as 15 minutes on non-active browsing will return the item for you

How do we subscribe to electronic books?

Via netLibrary, located in Boulder, Colorado The world's “premier supplier” of electronic

books to libraries, not individual patrons Division of Online Computer Library Center

(OCLC), a nonprofit organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing and preservation service to libraries worldwide.

OCLC PICA Will be the leading European Library Cooperative

How have we subscribed to a netLibrary collection?

Through the NoWAL (North West Academic Libraries) Consortium NoWAL + Keele

Biggest European consortial e-book deal

3 simultaneous accesses across the consortium

How much do we have access to?

15,500 e titles 12,000 selected by consortia, by

publisher and year 3,500 free public domain titles (already

internet available e.g out of copyright or via Project Gutenburg) via the same interface

Allowed a 30% turnover per yearInstitutions can add to the collection via

consortia or ourselves

Benefits Benefits

Martini access (24X7 anywhere with internet) - particular benefit to distance learners

Shared costmuch cheaper than going it alone

No loss of access Can’t steal or hide them Don’t need to bind/process them Don’t need to shelve them or transport them to other

locations They don’t take up space

Ease of use Exact duplicate of print, i.e. page numbers

correlate for citation

Disadvantages

Disadvantages Shared access Need to plan to use (time and location),

e.g. cannot read in the bath No reservation system Differences between the formats Not sitting on shelves, so requires

publicity Disability?

Copyright

Copyright restrictions applyWarnings issued by RobocopAdministrator notified of excessesIn reality it does not stop users

Just as with photocopying, a determined user could return to the same item on numerous occasions and continue copying.

Administrator’s login towww.netlibray.com/resourcecentergives access to statistical information,

including Individual institution use Consortial use Heavy use Turnaways ‘Dusty’ books

Management & collection information

Popular book report

Collection management NoWAL

Joint decision makingTimescales

InstitutionalChanging the order checking process

Collection management

Challenges?

Challenge is to get it used, because people don’t wander past them

Publicity Network of Hope Information day Student drop in sessions Learning & Teaching week PAR paper Deanery support

More challenges?

Skills of staff & students Navigation Good search strategy formulation Display approaches Data manipulation

Fears about plagiarism Ease of tracing offences

Interface with disability software

Any questions?