Searching for eBooks

From: <acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:58:51 -0500
To: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
I fear this is a newbie question, but I've stumped my Technical Services 
department with it, so here it goes.

The library is trying to determine availability and cost of electronic 
versions of required pre-clinical textbooks for medical and dental 
students at our institution.  I have obtained the textbook lists, but 
now I hit a wall.  How does one determine availability of an electronic 
version of a book?  (Part of this is more basic -- How do I prove a 
negative?)  How do I get a comprehensive list of the platforms on which 
an ebook is available?

I've searched Gobi, but that only shows ebooks available through YBP.

I've searched Books in Print, but it's difficult to work through, and 
I'm not certain how accurate their coverage of eBooks is.

I've searched WorldCat, but it quickly gets overwhelming, especially 
when there are multiple editions of a title.  Also, I'm depending upon 
there being a member contributed record of the [electronic resource] 
version, which isn't guaranteed.

Am I reduced to contacting individual publishers for title lists, and 
manually comparing them, or is there a better way?

Thanks,

Michael

-- 
Michael Koehn
Acting Director
Head, Resources Acquisitions and Organization
Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library
Columbia University Medical Center
701 West 168th Street, Rm. L10
New York, NY 10032 
Ph: (212) 305-9216
FAX: (212) 234-0595
mdk2126_at_columbia.edu

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Received on Tue Jan 11 2011 - 14:07:02 EST