The E-Book Dilemma: a Study of Aggregator and Publisher Options to Deliver Electronic Book Content

Abstract

The University of Kansas Libraries initially experimented with electronic books through a NetLibrary purchase of around 9600 books beginning in 2002. In subsequent years, collections of reference materials and historical content have been licensed, e.g. Oxford Reference Premium; Literature Online. Confronted with an offer too good to refuse last year, the Libraries purchased Springer e-book content from 2005-2007 and negotiated to receive all future publications electronically. As the market continued to develop with additional aggregators and publishers offering content, the collection development librarian organized a study group to review the various options and packages offered. We organized trials, webinars, and on site visits for three aggregators: ebrary, EBL and MyiLibrary and reviewed how publishers were offering access to their e-books. This presentation will examine results of our study by highlighting the following issues: digital rights management, technology, interfaces, purchase/subscription options, and perpetual access. We are also interested in how academic libraries market their e-book content and plan to survey if Voyager libraries are employing features to promote e-books through their catalogs.