From: Kohn, Karen <kohnk_at_arcadia.edu>
Hello,
I'm curious whether anyone has a better strategy for buying ebooks than
I do. I'm getting a lot of requests for them lately, and the process is
tedious.
We have e-books from two major vendors: EBL and NetLibrary. So I check
every titles on those two sites to see if they have it. After that I'm
not quite sure what to do. Occasionally a book is old enough to be out
of copyright and then Google ebooks might have it for free. I know
sometimes publishers sell ebooks directly, but I'm not that familiar
with which ones do that. I've not had much luck actually finding the
titles that faculty are requesting.
Is there any one-stop place I can look up a book and find out where it's
available as an ebook? What do other libraries do?
Thanks.
/Karen Kohn/
Collection Development Manager
Education and Sociology Librarian
Landman Library
Arcadia University
450 S. Easton Road
Glenside, PA 19038
ph: 215-572-85
fax: 215-572-0240
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) From: Helen P Mack<hpm0_at_Lehigh.EDU>
I am Lehigh University's Acquisitions Librarian. In the past we have
purchased ebook collections from NetLibrary and ebrary.
When there is a need to acquire a one-off ebook (which happens more and
more these days), I check with YBP, our book vendor, who has agreements
to provide ebooks from aggregators (e.g. NetLibrary, ebrary, EBL), as
well as publishers (e.g. Springer, Wiley, Gale, and many others).
Gobi, YBP's database, indicates which titles are available as ebooks,
and enables one to order them directly from their Gobi system. To me,
this is preferable to getting them direct from the publisher, because of
the consolidated billing. They also serve as the go-between for both
content and access issues, which is helpful because sometimes the
publishers' customer service reps are less than attentive.
The great thing about YBP, as far as I am concerned, is that a few years
ago they saw the future and figured out how to stay relevant in a world
in which paper book sales are dwindling.
Helen P. Mack
Hpm0_at_lehigh.edu <mailto:Hpm0_at_lehigh.edu>
(2)
From:
Joan Perlman <JPERLMAN_at_mchenry.edu>
Do you use a vendor such as YBP? That's where we've been purchasing most of our ebooks.
Joan Perlman
Catalog/Collection Development Librarian
McHenry County College Library
8900 US Highway 14
Crystal Lake, IL 60012
8154558775
(3) From: "Wade Wyckoff"<wyckoff_at_mcmaster.ca>
You don't mention whether you use a vendor like YBP for your print
books, but that would be one option. We've been buying EBL and ebrary
titles through YBP for some time now, and it's worked well. NetLibrary
is also available, as are many of the publishers directly. We also have
YBP's tech services group supply us with MARC records containing the URL
for our access to the e-books that we purchase through them. I think
that would give you what you're looking for in terms of more recent
e-books.
Wade Wyckoff
Associate University Librarian, Collections
McMaster University Library
1280 Main Street W.
Hamilton, ON L8S 4L6
p: 905-525-9140 x26557
f: 905-522-1277
(4) From:Thomas Izbicki <tizbicki_at_rci.rutgers.edu>
For availability of e-book versions of individual current titles I use
our Coutts Oasis system. It lists both print & digital versions.
Tom Izbicki
Interim Associate University Librarian for Collection Development and
Management
(5) From: Linwood DeLong <linwood.delong_at_uwinnipeg.ca>
I agree that the e-book market appears to be very fragmented. I have
done some research on Canadian e-books and I have found many different
vendors and different licenses that govern the purchase and viewing of
them. Some allow for single users only; others allow for unlimited
simultaneous access. It feels like the databases story all over again.
Your e-mail did not mention any of the major book vendors, such as YBP,
Baker and Taylor, etc. It might be worthwhile contacting them to see if
they can assist you.
Just to make life more interesting, JSTOR and Project Muse (both known
to many for their serial publications) have entered the e-book scene too:
http://about.jstor.org/news-events/announcement-archive/books-jstor
http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/ebooks-coming-to-project-muse-next-year/
Linwood DeLong
Head Librarian & Curator
Eckhardt-Gramatté Library
3Mc18S 368 McNamara Hall
University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave.Winnipeg, MB
Canada, R3B 2E9
Ph. 204-786-9124
FAX204-786-1824
e-mail:l.delong_at_uwinnipeg.ca <mailto:l.delong_at_uwinnipeg.ca>
(6)From:Samantha Franklin <sfranklin_at_lcsc.edu>
I'm in the same position and I agree that the process is tedious. I
haven't found a one-stop shopping solution yet. I'm looking into what
YBP has to offer by the way of ebook vendoring services. I know that
they work with EBL, ebrary and NetLibrary, so you may want to contact
them to find out how they can streamlines the purchasing and ordering
process for you. We order ebooks from Gale Cengage and ABC-Clio as well
as NetLibrary. I hope that helps.
Thanks,
//
/Samantha Thompson-Franklin, MA, MLIS
Associate Professor/Collections & Acquisitions Librarian
Lewis-Clark State College Library
500 - 8th Ave.
Lewiston, ID 83501
phone: 208-792-2557
fax: 208-792-2831
//sfranklin_at_lcsc.edu/ <mailto:sfranklin_at_lcsc.edu>
(7) From: Kathi Fountain <kfountain_at_vancouver.wsu.edu>
Does your book vendor work with ebooks? Our vendor is YBP, and they have
partnerships with EBL, ebrary, Netlibrary and some specific publishers.
When you search their catalog, ebook versions display in the results. If
you have contracts on file with the ebook vendor, you can order ebooks
directly through YBP's system. I don't think this catches every
available ebook available, but it certainly streamlines the process for
most items.
Kathi
Kathi Carlisle Fountain
Head of Collection Development
Washington State University Vancouver Library
14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave.
Vancouver, WA 98686-9600
Phone: 360-546-9694
Fax: 360-546-9039
kfountain_at_vancouver.wsu.edu <mailto:kfountain_at_vancouver.wsu.edu>
Received on Sat Apr 09 2011 - 03:01:05 EDT