Recent literature on the case for eBook acquisition and collection development in the academic world addresses both the library and user perspectives: finding the best eBook solution with best functionality at best cost while anticipating user expectations. Often addressing the eBook collection development from the standpoint of converting large print collections to online, a big emphasis is placed on the user experience and the need for the eBook to be a true print book replacement. Content providers have come a long way in recreating the book experience digitally, constantly developing and improving platforms in parallel with technological developments - the ever changing mobile platforms - and decreasing strict DRM requirements.
Unlike in the first book digitization formats, users can now flip through pages, bookmark, highlight, save/print, etc. having nearly the same user experience as the eJournal users. Nevertheless, the eBook adoption trends do not parallel those of eJournal platforms.
Whether a user prefers the digital to the print format of a book will be a matter of how functionality and preferred features compare in the two formats. Whether a library selects to acquire eBooks or purchase print is more complex. Factors in the decision are not cost and functionality alone but also licensing and pricing models, sourcing options, as well as the infrastructure for successful implementation and deployment.
The library strategy in eBook collection development is complicated by the plethora of available platforms, licensing model differences, buy vs rent/subscription options, content coverage, implementation and deployment challenges, user experience, usage monitoring, institutional budgeting and adoption advocates. Not to mention the market dynamics of lively content transport, titles switching providers, or provider mergers and acquisitions. All these elements impact the eBook acquisition strategy, budgeting and ultimately the ROI of the eBook collection. A recent academic study reviewed as many as 17 eBook platforms, for breadth of content and platform functionality.
According to the findings, users expect ease of access and ease of discoverability, clear and accurate search, while librarians expect clear and accurate metadata and seamless linking. In other words, as far as functionality of platforms goes, users and librarians are on the same page. With the variety of elements challenging the academic library eBook acquisition strategy, the collection development needs to have clearly defined goals and criteria of selection: print to digital conversion, subject vs single title purchase, level of access restriction, purchase vs subscription models, metadata availability for implementation, user training and deployment, usage monitoring and ROI analysis. Namely, applying the already proven and successful eJournal collection development model to eBooks. The same challenges apply to the eBook purchases in the corporate environment: access models, licensing, YOY sustainability of purchase models, metadata, usage and ROI. Except, in corporations, content management responsibility may come not only under the purview of the library for the corporations lucky to have a library team, but may be the duty of a solo librarian or a related non-library role that has been tasked with content purchases. In corporations without a centralized library team or information center, the more difficult part of the strategy may be partnering with budgetary and adoption advocates for content purchases. Here users take on an additional role of directing decisions of content acquisition. If and when acquiring eBook content, corporations are looking to expand content offerings by broadening the scope of their online literature coverage, improving discoverability of content rather than as developing their eBook collection as part of the going-digital print conversion. A decreasing number of corporations have print collections.
Sources: Boedighimer, A. 2019. InfoToday Considering EBooks in Collection Development Lavender, J., McAllister, C. 2019. Charleston conference. A Comparison and Review of 17 eBook platforms. Matarazzo, J., Pearlstein, T. 2013. Onine Searcher. EBooks in Corporate/Special Libraries Wiersma, G., Beauchamp, L. 2020. Charleston Conference. The Time Has Come for eBooks, or Has It?
