Academic E-Books: Publishers, Librarians, and Users. Suzanne M. Ward, Robert S. Freeman, and Judith M. Nixon, eds. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2016. 360p. Paper, $29.95 (ISBN 978-1-5575-3727-0). LC 2015027357.


Book Reviews 673

Assessment tools vary across the case studies presented, although, because self-
awareness is such a critical part of metaliteracy, all assessment activities are highly 
self-reflective. These include written reflection and surveys for students, as well as an 
examination of the process students follow to complete a project, rather than the final 
product. Several of the authors provide detailed coding systems used for assessment; 
many of these incorporate the overall structure of Mackey and Jacobson’s metaliteracy 
framework of behavioral, cognitive, affective, and metacognitive skills.

In keeping with the self-reflective nature of metaliteracy, the authors of these case 
studies also provide serious self-reflection on their own attempts to teach and evaluate 
for metaliteracy. Donna Witek and Teresa Grettano reach the inspiring conclusion that 
their own course redesign to teach metaliteracy rather than information literacy has 
resulted in a more dynamic and flexible course structure. Barbara J. D’Angelo and Barry 
M. Maid conclude that a metaliteracy approach has allowed them to better realize what 
their students have learned and will be able to apply following the course. Sandra K. 
Cimbricz and Logan Rath note that metaliteracy also challenged them as instructors 
to rethink their instructional practices, including a reexamination of the information 
sources they direct students to and the base assumptions they make about students’ 
technology and information skills.

The ninth and final chapter of Metaliteracy in Practice departs from the case study 
format, as Paul Prinsloo contributes an excellent essay on metaliteracy and agency. 
While this book is overall a highly practical volume grounded in a theoretical frame-
work, Prinsloo shifts to a more theoretical, social justice–focused examination of how 
metaliteracy exists in a changing world where “literacy-as-agency is a prerequisite to 
living a fully human, dignified life” (186). He encourages us to remember Paulo Freire’s 
emphasis on human agency as reliant on each person’s ability to “read the world.” 
Prinsloo uses this as a broader framework for explaining our human need to be able to 
understand who influences our world and how, as well as the power each individual 
has to create alternate narratives in response. He encourages us to use this concept of 
literacy-as-agency as a broader framework for defining and motivating all literacies, 
including application and assessment of metaliteracy.

Metaliteracy in Practice is an important read for any librarian or faculty who have 
teaching roles, or who play a role in the production of content that students interact 
with. The practical applications of metaliteracy described in this book will be incredibly 
useful for anyone developing assignments and evaluation frameworks to be used in 
teaching across disciplines, whether they are starting to plan a new course from scratch, 
or simply want to rework an existing course to better teach and evaluate for metaliteracy 
skills. The book includes a list of figures and tables and a detailed index.—Jen Hoyer, 
Artstor; Interference Archive, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Academic E-Books: Publishers, Librarians, and Users. Suzanne M. Ward, Robert S. 
Freeman, and Judith M. Nixon, eds. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 
2016. 360p. Paper, $29.95 (ISBN 978-1-5575-3727-0). LC 2015027357.

In this comprehensive volume, Ward, Freeman, and Nixon apply a breadth of experi-
ence amassed during their collective tenure at Purdue University Libraries to offer a 
balanced grounding for library professionals working in the area of e-book collections, 
management, and assessment. In addition to privileging the views of libraries and their 
users, they bring the perspective of publishers and vendors to the table. The result is 
a work that fosters a holistic appreciation for the challenges that extend across the e-
book dissemination ecosystem. This philosophy is incorporated into the structure of 
the book itself, where a final section of case studies is preceded by sections dedicated 
to each stakeholder group.

doi:10.5860/crl.77.5.673



674 College & Research Libraries September 2016

Those who are planning assessment endeavours will appreciate the level of detailed 
analysis presented in this book. As Levine-Clarke notes in his Epilogue: “one thing 
that e-books offer is the potential for better understanding of how library users interact 
with monographs” (344). This book explores the farthest reaches of that interpretation, 
detailing exactly how far mining user data reports can go, and the spaces around and 
between that still demand qualitative insights. 

The book begins with perspectives from the publishing industry, giving voice to 
commercial, academic and society publishers, as well as aggregators. We learn that 
e-books have dramatically slowed in growth and profitability, leaving hardcover and 
softcover formats as key breadwinners. Herman’s chapter vividly relays the cost chal-
lenges of the e-book workflow with copyright clearance being a significant sticking 
point, particularly for the mounting of back files. Obtaining clearance for images, she 
claims, is particularly problematic as rights holders continue to fear digital appropria-
tion. Provisioning of e-content for libraries adds its own overhead, particularly for the 
smaller academic publisher that has to build in proxy server, library branding, and 
DDA (demand-driven acquisition) support. Sanfilippo adds that electronic distribu-
tion requires adhering to varying restrictions and metadata standards for numerous 
platforms at the individual title level, prohibitively raising distribution costs. Through-
out the section, we begin to see a key driver of publisher-librarian tension: DDA has 
become a less profitable strategy for publishers, forcing them to embargo front list 
titles (to push sales of print) and to raise purchase prices and short-term loan prices 
to maintain fiscal viability. 

What follows are the creative coping strategies of libraries detailed in the Librar-
ians’ Challenges and Case Studies sections. These sections form the bulk of the book 
and are quite compelling. Much is written here with respect to strategies for manag-
ing patron-driven acquisition models, including ways of mitigating one’s “risk” or 
“discovery” pool. To this end, Fischer offers a memorable and informative chapter 
on risk pool management, with an eye to sustainability. She advocates for frequent 
monitoring to accompany this acquisitions model, warning of the need to remove titles 
due to frequent price inflation and scope creep. Ward and Richardson are in support 
of librarians selecting e-books for addition to the discovery pool in lieu of purchasing 
them outright. Their data show that this hybrid selection strategy benefits both users 
and the library with respect to adding highly used titles to the collection as well as 
deferring purchasing costs. Chapters addressing a variety of topics including collection 
strategies in area studies, user e-book browsing and reading behaviour, and consortia 
partnerships building infrastructure to support ILL of e-books add breadth and depth.

The Users’ Experiences section is a sobering reminder of the learning curve that 
must be overcome for readers to meaningfully integrate e-books into their research 
strategies. Varying platform configurations, password requirements, multiple DRM 
models, and underwhelming searching, linking, and annotation functionality disrupt 
academic e-book usability. David’s case study details community responsiveness to e-
book user experience shortfalls. The OCUL Scholars Portal e-book platform functions 
to improve user experience and also provides a basis, by way of presenting usage 
statistics from multiple institutions, to have successful conversations with publishers 
to loosen DRM restrictions. In keeping with the theme of technical infrastructure and 
usability, this volume would benefit from an examination of user interaction with e-
books within an adaptive technologies context.

One might fault the editors for the perceptible degree of repetition throughout the 
book, suggesting that fewer chapters could address the topic of e-books successfully. 
This strategy, however practical, would surely miss the overall feeling created by the 
gathering together of so many disparate voices. The chorus calls the question with 



Book Reviews 675

resounding effect: is the state of academic e-books a full-scale cold war? This volume 
offers some compelling supportive evidence in its detailing of the machinations of the 
various factions as they engage in data gathering and analysis to support a dance of 
evasion, self-defense, and retaliation. And as is the case in any war, there are casual-
ties on all sides: the publishers claim crippling revenue losses, the libraries try to best 
serve their patrons in the face of dwindling budgets, and the users suffer with DRM 
restrictions, disappearing content, and poor interface design. 

The reader will find, however, that the overall message of this volume is heartening: 
there is hope for diplomatic relations. We see, in particular through the successful in-
novative consortia partnerships discussed in this volume, that stakeholder communi-
ties are collaborating in responsive and productive ways. We must continue to work 
together to lay the groundwork for effective communication and mutual understanding 
toward a more sustainable outcome for all involved, with a collective eye to augment-
ing user experience.—Andrea Kosavic, York University

Making Institutional Repositories Work. Burton B. Callicot, David Scherer, and 
Andrew Wesolek, eds. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2016. 360p. 
Paper, $29.95 (ISBN 978-1557537263)

Making Institutional Repositories Work provides a framework for institutions looking to 
implement an IR, create institutional policies, recruit for use of the IR, evaluate existing 
IRs, and next steps for this valuable service. There is also a section dedicated to case 
studies from several institutions. 

The first section focuses on choosing a platform for an institutional repository. 
Corbett, Ghaphery, Work, and Byrd present factors that institutions need to consider 
before selecting a platform. They also discuss differences between open source and 
proprietary systems and offer a deeper understanding for those who want to change 
platforms. McNeill investigates the types of repositories and platforms available 
to academic institutions and addresses essential questions that will help guide the 
decision-making process. Arlitsch, Obrien, Mixter, Clark, and Sterman discuss dis-
coverability of IR content. They discuss the importance of structured metadata and 
metadata consistency, as well as discoverability in search engines, and describing items 
in the Semantic Web. A few of these names should be familiar in the field, especially 
regarding search engine optimization (SEO). 

Setting policies is the focus of the second section of the book. Wesolek and Royster 
present IR policy basics, as well as benefits of setting such policies. An interesting in-
clusion in this chapter is the argument for not implementing a mandatory open access 
policy. The authors also address the question regarding the necessity of these policies 
for a successful IR. Gilman presents a solid case that academic institutions have a goal 
and institutional mission of disseminating knowledge openly available by the creators 
of that content for the benefit of the community, while protecting and respecting faculty 
rights. IRs are essential in this, and they play a central role. Duranceau and Kriegsman 
discuss open access implementation models, including liaison recruitment, outreach, 
faculty profile tools, and automatic harvesting. McMillan focuses on electronic theses 
and dissertations (ETDs), discussing the goals of theses and dissertations, copyright 
ownership, and ProQuest’s Dissertation Abstracts requirements and lack of understand-
ing on the part of graduate students in terms of what it does for their dissertations. 
Bergin and Roh present their decision to stop their practice of requiring the submis-
sion of students’ dissertations to ProQuest. They found their solution within the IR. 

After implementing the system and establishing policies, the next logical step is 
recruiting and creating content, which is the subject of the third section of this book. 
Davis-Kahl addresses themes and patterns regarding how faculty use green archiving, 

doi:10.5860/crl.77.5.675