Hodges, Preston & Hamilton (2010)

Hodges, D., Preston, C., & Hamilton, M. (2010). Resolving the Challenge of E-Books. Collection Management, 35(3/4), 196-200. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from Library & Information Science database.

This article appears in an issue devoted to patron-driven acquisitions. The other articles do not focus exclusively on e-books but may provide additional insights.

The authors begin with brief but interesting historical context. They place e-book acquisition in the context of library efforts in the 1990s to digitize archival and rare items, a process I remember well. They identify the first patron-driven e-book model as coming from NetLibrary in 1998 (p. 196). More recently, "Complications in creating a sustainable business model delayed expansion of patron-initiated acquisitions programs in the 2000s" (p. 197).

The authors then identify current issues with e-book acquisition:

• Availability of e-books simultaneously with print book publication. Not having a choice when a work is first published creates problems, as libraries don't want to buy the print version first and then later buy the e-book (p. 198).
• Adoption of the epub standard, which allows a product to be usable in a variety of e-book readers (p. 199).
• E-books can't be loaned through interlibrary loan programs and their use as reserve readings is also problematic (p. 199).
• The variety of patron-driven models being offered by publishers and aggregators makes it hard for libraries to make accurate cost comparisons (p. 199).

My thoughts
The epub standard is new to me. I have been thinking about the difficulty of the platform question in terms of instituting e-books at my library, and it looks like it may become a moot issue before too long. Could publishers begin offering the same e-book in a choice of distribution formats, kind of how Cory Doctorow offers his books in his Web site? If students could choose the format, it would be more practical to push distribution of e-books.