Michael, I’ve been learning a lot from our University Bookstore while serving on a committee exploring the future of textbooks while also ensuring our compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act http://www2.ed.gov/policy/ highered/leg/hea08/index.html (and a piece of this legislation is commonly called the textbook affordability act). From my experience here, I suggest you talk with your University bookstore manager for some assistance.
Lauren
cid:086385114_at_22072009-1A03
Lauren Corbett
Director of Resource Services, Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Ph: 336-758-6136
corbetle_at_wfu.edu
---Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, January 6, 2011 5:58:51 AM
Subject: [ACQNET-L] Searching for eBooks
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 Fri Jan 28 2011 - 01:26:37 EST