From: "June K. Schmidt" <JSchmidt_at_library.msstate.edu>
Topic 4: Patron acceptance of e-books
Facilitator: June Koelker
Recorder: Sarah Cohen
Libraries spend thousands of dollars for e-books, but some feel they have
little to show for their investment. What measures can be used to increase
patron familiarity and use of e-books?
Adding titles to the online catalog will increase the use of e-books. Some
libraries use a single record for both print and electronic. Difficulties
were reported with catalogers' demands for specificity. It matters what
text is used for the description in 856 subfield z because it influences
the students' perception of the availability of the book.
Some patrons complain that the e-book is never available when they want
it. This may be due to an insufficient number of simultaneous users in the
licensing agreement. Proper licensing and checkout practices are needed
when e-books are placed on reserve or used in course management
software. Usage reports will help measure demand for each title. A
library's ability to get usage stats for its own "users" from the vendor is
a way of understanding how e-books are being used.
Titles selected specifically for a library's audience may show higher
demand than those purchased in packages. E-books may now be purchased
individually from book vendors such as Baker & Taylor or Blackwell Book
Services. Is there a critical mass of e-books needed before their use
becomes commonplace? A focus on downloadable titles and an increase in the
number of e-books available will result in an upswing of use.
E-books are very helpful to distance learners and during times when there
are restrictions to the physical collections such as building renovations,
move of books to off-site storage. Reference e-books are more heavily used
than non-reference e-books. Ease of searching is cited as a value-added
for reference e-books.
What current trends affect use of e-books? Students can now create and
publish e-books with Microsoft Read software. Student use of such
technologies may result in a greater appreciation for e-books in library
collections.
What types of materials can be published as e-books? The ability to
include high quality visual art reproductions in e-books has been
questioned. However ARTstor digital library of 300,000 images demonstrates
that creation of art e-books is not insurmountable. Audio books are now
available for MP3 players, and the technology exists to simultaneously
display musical scores along with audio records if the score notations are
tied to time-marks in the recording. The same practice is being
experimented with for language recordings and transcriptions.
How to select e-books? No one reported having an approval plan that sends
slips of e-books, but it was suggested that this would be helpful.
Submitted by:
June Schmidt
Associate Dean for Technical Services
Mitchell Memorial Library
P.O. Box 5408
Mississippi State, MS 39762
662-325-7672
Received on Fri Feb 17 2006 - 02:34:49 EST