Lisa,
Clearly you want an academic e-book vendor. There are four major players, ebrary, EBook Library, EBSCOhost, and MyiLibrary (perhaps soon to be three if EBL and ebrary merge). They differ mostly in reading platform features and lending models. While there are some differences in content, they overlap heavily. As a rule, publishers make decisions about what is released as an e-book and, having made that decision, want as broad a relase as possible. Pricing is also similar across the board.
My best advice would be to contact reps from these companies and arrange for presentations and demos. You want to know whose platform best meets the needs of your patrons and which fits best into your purchasing and cataloging workflows.
Hope that gets you started.
best,
--Forrest
Forrest E. Link
Acquisitions Librarian
The College of New Jersey Library
linkf_at_tcnj.edu
609.771.2412
609.637.5177(fax)
----- Original Message -----
From: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
To: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 1:45:31 PM
Subject: [ACQNET-L] recommendations re: e-books
Our library is researching e-book vendors for the first time. If anyone here on the list has recommendations as to what features we should look for in a plan, or any other recommendations at all, I would appreciate it if you would reply.
The following information about our holdings is from our website:
"The particular strengths of the Bishop Payne Library collection are in the areas of biblical studies, church history, theology, the Protestant Reformation, missions, and liturgics. It is a major resource for the study of Anglicanism. The collection includes source materials from many of the provinces and dioceses of the international Anglican Communion.
The library collection numbers over 225,000 volumes of books and bound periodicals, 6,800 microforms and 600 music compact discs. The library receives 900 current journals, periodicals, and newspapers in print and subscribes to over 29 computer research databases of indexes and full-text journal articles."
Lisa Williams
Technical Services Librarian
Bishop Payne Library, Virginia Theological Seminary
Alexandria, Va.
703 461-1795
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--
Forrest E. Link
Acquisitions Librarian
The College of New Jersey Library
linkf_at_tcnj.edu
609.771.2412
609.637.5177(fax)
_______________________________________________
ACQNET-L mailing list
ACQNET-L_at_lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/acqnet-l
Received on Thu Mar 07 2013 - 18:38:29 EST