eBooks@Cardiff

Steve RatcliffeAberconway Library, Cardiff

University

Background Library Review findings 2005

Shortage of reading list items most common student complaint

Pressures on space

eBooks a solution in terms of: Relieving pressure on short loan print collections Added value in supporting distance learners Added value in supporting 24/7 access

Our view: eBooks supplement but don’t replace core texts

Starting out We had some eBooks already but needed to

expand the collection Bid for and received £50k from HEFCEW Researched the market Made a list of requirements Concentrated on core texts/high usage titles Outright purchase model

Starting out – Cont’d

Concentrated on NetLibrary and Myilibrary, Dawsonera came later

Total of 449 titles from the two aggregators, 500 titles in total purchased

Liaised with Subject Librarians to produce titles lists

Awareness and Promotion

Catalogue difficulties – results pageWider lack of awareness of ebooks Marketing:Posters, guide, stickers on printed

copiesVery small budget for materials

Evaluation

No print circulation vs ebook dataUsage -MyILibary vs NetlibraryMyILibrary titles used moreMyiLibrary 9412 accesses, 30 average

accesses per titleNetlibrary 1543 accesses, 10 average

accesses per title

MyiLibrary usageRange of title usage

138

59

38

1711 9 6 6 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

No of accesses (ranges)

Freq

uenc

y

Netlibrary usageAccess per title (range)

107

19

9 9

2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 10

20

40

60

80

100

120

0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 101-110 111-120 121-130 131-140

number of accesses

freq

uenc

y (ti

tles)

Usage over the year (MyILibrary)Total accesses

0200400600800

10001200140016001800

Apr

-08

May

-08

Jun-

08

Jul-0

8

Aug

-08

Sep

-08

Oct

-08

Nov

-08

Dec

-08

Jan-

09

Feb-

09

Mar

-09

Months

Total accesses

On-Campus vs Off-Campus

48% of access were on-campus – unexpected!

Cost

The average cost of a single-user title was £80 on Myilibrary, The average cost of a NetLibrary eBook was £89.23

The overall average cost per access per MyiLibrary eBook was £3.18 NetLibrary average cost per access of £8.42.

Cost per access (MyiLibrary)Distribution of cost and number of accesses

£0.01

£0.10

£1.00

£10.00

£100.00

£1,000.00

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

number of accesses per title

Cos

t per

acc

ess

per t

itle

Cost per access (Netlibrary)Netlibrary: Distibution of cost and number of accesses

£0.10

£1.00

£10.00

£100.00

£1,000.00

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

number of accesses per title

cost

per

acc

ess

per t

itle

Turnaways

MyiLibrary – Virtual turnaways. 470 in total across 45 titles

Netlibrary – 164 actual turnaways across 20 titles

DRM induced lockouts more of an issue

Qualitative data

Convenience of useWant more core texts availableLack of awareness on access routesConcerned about comfort issue – reading

large amounts of text on a screen

Conclusions

Appropriate title selection is key (evidence based)

Most cost-effective with larger cohorts and textbook based teaching

Access models are changing but need to remain flexible

Technology will change the landscape

And finally…the hardest bit

Deciding on how to refer to eBooks:e-booksE-BooksElectronic bookseBooks (the one we decided on)