First published May 15, 2008 (Booklist).
Like many librarians, you’re beginning to purchase e-books from a variety of publishers, and you’re confused by all the different licensing agreements, platforms, and pricing models. A solution to this madness? Use an e-book aggregator. Aggregators partner with multiple publishers to supply content (e-books, audio books, other media) and provide a platform for libraries and end users to search, order, access, and download the content on the Web. We’ll focus here on three of the larger academic aggregators—EBL, ebrary, and MyiLibrary. Ebooks Corporation’s EBL (Ebook Library) partners with 250 academic and trade publishers, offering more than 85,000 titles. Ebrary partners with 285 publishers to offer more than 120,000 e-books and content databases. The newest platform, Ingram Digital Group’s MyiLibrary, partners with 250 publishers and offers more than 110,000 titles.
For me, the major advantage of an aggregator is having a single platform or interface to host countless titles, with international coverage, and typically no special players or plug-ins. Furthermore, because aggregators partner with hundreds of publishers, librarians can centralize their selection and acquisitions processes, ordering print or electronic content direct from the aggregator or through one of the many book wholesalers, such as YBP, Blackwell, or Baker and Taylor. As a result of this centralization, only one contract or licensing agreement is needed. And libraries negotiate pricing models up front, so e-book prices are known in advance.
There are several pricing models, but the most popular are purchasing title by title for either single-user or multiple-user access or purchasing an entire e-book subject collection for multiple-user access. Subscription or perpetual-ownership models are available as well. Prices vary depending on the aggregator and number of users but are generally at or above the print list price. Additional benefits of using an aggregator include federated search compatibility, 24/7 access to full text, free MARC records, usage statistics, and the ability to customize the interface or offer it in multiple languages.
Because aggregators have so many advantages in common, I spoke with representatives from EBL, ebrary, and MyiLibrary to find out what they provide that’s unique.
EBL
EBL offers two very distinctive features: course packs and reserves. These allow libraries to create course-specific content, either linking to book chapters already owned or purchasing individual book chapters for reserve or course-pack use only. Both are password protected and can easily be created and edited. Additionally, EBL provides an alternative solution to ILL by offering a purchase-on-demand model in which all titles are visible to end users and rented or purchased as needed, subject to specifications in the negotiated contract. Generally, the e-book price is the same as print list price. The catch, you ask? Access is limited to 325 uses per year. If the circulation climbs above that, libraries purchase a second copy. Kari Paulson, president of EBL, states, “With this model, the library determines the rules for discovery and payment, and very rarely does anyone go above the 325 uses.” On the future of EBL, Paulson says, “Our mission is to continue to innovate both on the library and patron side to make e-books more interactive and make using them more interactive, and with better tools.”
Ebrary
Ebrary has a patented Infotools program as well as their ebrary reader interface. Currently, the reader is a plug-in, but a Java-based reader, which won’t require a plug-in, is in beta testing. The Infotools software is a customized set of utilities that links users to other online sources, including the library catalog, dictionaries, e-book reference collections, databases, search engines, and institutional repository collections. Ebrary also offers distinct APIs (application programming interfaces) to provide single sign-on and integration with course-management systems, like Blackboard. Libraries wishing to create institutional repositories can license the ebrary platform for hosted services or to run on the library’s own server. The ebrary reader software offers a single interface for commercial and library resources; usage statistics; PDF, XML, or other data-format submission; meta-tagging; and customization. Kevin Sayar, president of ebrary, says to expect a redesigned user interface, which will be more intuitive and limit the number of clicks needed to locate information.
MyiLibrary
MyiLibrary, with its connection to Ingram and the Microsoft Live Search Books program, offers a large amount of unique content not available for purchase through other aggregators. Additionally, Ingram Digital Group offers print and digital content distribution and print-on-demand services through their Lightning Source product and hosts content from their clients using their repository feature. Both Stanford University and the University of Toronto currently use this feature. In addition to the pricing models discussed above, MyiLibrary also offers a demand-driven model, where all titles are displayed but not yet purchased. Once the titles are used a designated number of times (a negotiated amount), they are automatically purchased by the library. This fall, MyiLibrary will roll out another new model, allowing end users to purchase or rent titles themselves or request the library to purchase them. According to Rich Rosy, vice president and general manager, Institutional Solutions, Ingram Digital Group, “It’s an exciting time with e-content in the institutional area from publisher and library perspectives becoming more prevalent. Because both publishers and libraries drive these initiatives, we like to talk with them equally to understand their needs.”
Sue Polanka is Head of Reference Instruction, Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. For more on e-books, check out her blog,No Shelf Required, which provides a forum for librarians, publishers, distributors, aggregators, and others to talk about e-books and their place in libraries.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment