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E-STEM: Comparing Aggregator and Publisher E-Book Platforms
Tara Tobin Cataldo
Science Collections Coordinator
ttobin@ufl.edu
Michelle Leonard
Environmental Engineering Sciences & Natural Resources Librarian
mleonard@uflib.ufl.edu
Marston Science Library
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Abstract
The University of Florida Libraries (UF), like many academic libraries, have been purchasing more e-books with each passing year. While most libraries that purchase e-books seemingly do so on very few platforms, the UF libraries currently have their collection of e-books available in over 35 different platforms. While this presents quite a challenge in terms of management it also presents an excellent opportunity for comparative analysis. Recent research focuses on the analysis of packages and the "big" deals, and highlights usage statistics but do not go into depth about the platforms and publishers. This article will compare Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) e-book platforms from both aggregators and publishers by examining features and usage statistics and making recommendations for consideration.
Introduction/Background
The University of Florida (UF) is a large land, sea and space grant institution with close to 50,000 students, 4,000 faculty, 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. The UF Libraries comprise seven libraries, with each offering primary support to specific colleges and degree programs. The Marston Science Library (MSL) controls a certain segment of the overall materials budget, though most of the budget is tied up in large, multidisciplinary purchases (databases, e-journal packages, etc.). MSL's budgets have been combined over the years until it now has only three separate funds -- one for print serials, one for electronic continuations and one for firm orders/monographs. Like most library systems, UF has experienced several budget cuts. MSL has such a small monograph budget presently that the science selectors have been purchasing more e-books for greater distribution, but are not the only UF library doing so. To illustrate how e-books are an increasing segment of the collections Table 1 shows the results of searches of the UF online catalog and what percentage of each publishing year's books are e-books. The catalog counts each title as one e-book, even if it has multiple volumes such as an encyclopedia. These are all the books acquired by the UF Libraries, not just the Science Library.
Table 1: UF Libraries Book Collections by Publishing Year
| Publishing Year | Number of All Books (Print and Electronic) | Number of E-books only | Percent of All that are E-books |
|---|---|---|---|
2004 | 76,005 | 37,145 | 49% |
2005 | 69,421 | 36,710 | 53% |
2006 | 64,482 | 34,751 | 54% |
2007 | 60,693 | 34,166 | 56% |
2008 | 58,961 | 37,244 | 63% |
2009 | 61,488 | 39,692 | 65% |
2010 | 62,837 | 41,315 | 66% |
2011 | 57,083 | 37,137 | 65% |
2012 | 45,678 | 29,652 | 65% |
2013 | 34,801 | 24,970 | 72% |
Forty-nine percent of 2004 books are electronic but that number rises to 72% in 2013. This is the result of both the Science Library and the Health Science Center Libraries buying more e-books because of the wider audience they reach, large e-book packages that the Deans purchased with end-of-year funds and the increased ability to see what e-books are available in our book vendor's ordering system. With this increase new challenges arise, such as variation in platform, access, features, and functions which present problems for the users in trying to navigate the platforms, determine if they can access the whole book, find out how much they can print or download, etc. The UF Libraries currently have their collection of e-books available in over 35 different platforms. This is a burden in terms of management but also an excellent opportunity for comparative analysis. We conduct an analysis on the platforms hosting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) e-books, specifically comparing aggregators and publishers. The aggregators include MyiLibrary, ebrary, and Knovel, and their platforms host the content of multiple publishers. The publishers include CRC, Elsevier, and Wiley, and they host their own content and that of their subsidiaries. Variables analyzed include formats, platform features, digital rights management (DRM), mobile device capabilities, usage statistics and cost per use breakdowns. Librarians can use this assessment to help determine the type of platforms that may best suit their budgets, meet the needs of their patrons, and demonstrate to library administration the importance of funding for e-book collections.
Literature Review
The e-book literature crosses various disciplines including technical services, reference, acquisitions, and subject areas. For this study, we focused only on the few research and review articles that concentrated on their use in the STEM disciplines. We refer readers to the special issue of Library Technology Reports (Roncevic 2014) for a more general overview of e-book platforms that offers an excellent analysis of many (though by no means all) platform specifications.
The STEM e-book studies primarily cover the use and perception of e-books, some with comparisons to print. Our review includes four studies focused on faculty and graduate students. Nariani (2009) identifies a difference in how science graduate students used e-books as opposed to the science faculty. For example, graduate students would spend more time reading the book online than would faculty. Foote and Rupp-Serrano (2010) also delve into these differences when they studied the same groups in the geosciences. With both studies, faculty had a stronger preference for print books. Using surveys and interviews, Foote and Rupp-Serrano studied e-book use on the platforms of Knovel, Elsevier, ebrary, and Springer. Zhang and Beckman (2011) surveyed graduate students and faculty in the chemistry and biology departments at Indiana University, Bloomington where they have several publisher and aggregator platforms. Eight of the survey participants were also interviewed. Responses were lumped together and did not compare faculty to students. Participants were asked their preferred e-book publisher/vendor and the top two were Springer and Wiley. Participants based their preference on content, not platform. Waters et. al. (2014) surveyed faculty and graduate students within the sciences on a variety of e-book issues, receiving 357 responses. Many respondents indicated their dislike of limitations such as having to create a profile and restrictions on printing and copying. There were not many great differences in faculty and graduate student responses but there were departmental differences in preference for print vs. e-books (e.g. Pharmacy had the highest preference for e-books and Physics/Astronomy had the highest preference for print books). Of particular note were concerns over "varying quality of user platforms" and that there is frustration because e-books do not have a standard platform.
Two studies analyzed the perceptions of e-books used by science faculty. Bierman et. al. (2010) surveyed and interviewed 11 science faculty. Only four of the eleven had used e-books and participants thought it was "more difficult to quickly assess and evaluate quality" of e-books than print books. D'Ambra (2013) surveyed faculty in medicine, science, and engineering and performed a complex analysis attempting to apply the Task-Technology-Fit model to e-book adoption. This exploratory study validates the efficacy of this model for studying e-books and the academic tasks of teaching and research.
Berg et. al. (2010) studied 20 undergraduate science students using a think aloud-protocol and EBL e-books and found the students had more difficulty finding information they needed in the e-books as opposed to print. Muir and Hawes (2013) used surveys, online capturing, think-aloud protocols, and interviews to study undergraduate physics students' use of e-books for an assignment. They used the NetLibrary and MyiLibrary platforms and in general the students found using the e-books frustrating because of access, navigation, and interface problems. Overall, these studies suggest users in the sciences are certainly using e-books, with students taking to them more quickly than faculty; that content is of high importance, but the limitations of some platforms cause user frustration.
Methods and Discussion
The University of Florida Libraries' e-book collections are hosted on over 35 different platforms. For this study, we analyzed only those platforms that include science e-books: 14 platforms included eight publisher platforms and six aggregators. The publisher platforms are:
- CABI - http://www.cabi.org/cabebooks
- CRC's CHEMnetBASE - http://www.chemnetbase.com
- CRC's ENGnetBASE - http://www.crcnetbase.com
- IEEE Xplore - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org
- Elsevier's ScienceDirect - http://www.sciencedirect.com
- Springer's SpringerLink - http://link.springer.com
- Morgan and Claypool's Synthesis - http://www.morganclaypool.com/page/synthesis.jsp
- Wiley Online - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
The aggregator platforms are:
- Books 24x7 - {http://help.books24x7.com/bkb/#30369.htm}
- EBL - http://www.eblib.com/
- Ebrary - http://www.ebrary.com/corp/academic.jsp
- EBSCO - http://www.ebscohost.com/ebooks
- Knovel - http://app.knovel.com
- MyiLibrary - http://www.myilibrary.com
It is important to define the two types of platforms: publisher and aggregator. The publisher platform is limited to the e-books they and/or their subsidiaries produce while the aggregator platform includes e-books from a variety of publishers, societies, associations, or organizations. We identified the type of usage statistics provided by each publisher (Table 2) and aggregator (Table 3) at the time of this writing. Usage statistics were downloaded from the provider's administration web sites. Statistics can take a variety of forms and we made note of the following in the tables:
- Types of COUNTER reports
- Availability of title-level stats
- Availability of zero use stats
- Notes of consequence
Table 2: Publisher Platform Usage Statistics
| Platform | COUNTER Reports | Title-Level Stats | Zero Use Stats | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CABI | DB | No | No |
|
CHEMnetBASE | DB | Yes | Yes |
|
ENGnetBASE | BR | Yes | Yes | Reports for earlier years will include current titles |
IEEE Xplore | JR | Yes | No | Report lists chapters accessed |
ScienceDirect | BR | Yes | No | Last 12 months only |
SpringerLink | BR | Yes | Yes |
|
Synthesis | JR | No | No |
|
Wiley Online | BR | Yes | Yes | Report includes all Wiley e-books, not only what you own |
Table 3: Aggregator Platform Usage Statistics
| Platform | COUNTER Reports | Title-Level Stats | Zero Use Stats | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Books 24x7 | BR | Yes | Yes |
|
EBL | BR | Yes | n/a | We do patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) only with EBL so titles are only purchased that are used |
Ebrary | BR | Yes | No |
|
EBSCO | BR | Yes | No |
|
Knovel | None | No | No | Report by subject collection only |
MyiLibrary | BR | Yes | No |
|
When considering usage statistics, the potential purchaser should request full details and report examples. It is easy to assume that since the products are e-books, that the COUNTER reports will be book reports, when in fact some publishers and aggregators provide the statistics as database or journal reports. COUNTER reports also have their limitations. They typically report only "successful" uses, but librarians usually want to know what is not being used to get the larger picture on their investment. For this reason, we have indicated if you can obtain Zero usage from the listed providers. Examples of the types of reports you can encounter and their COUNTER descriptions include:
- Journal Report 1 (JR1) - Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal
- Database Report 1 (DB1) - Total Searches, Result Clicks and Record Views by Month and Database
- Book Report (BR1) - Number of Successful Title Requests by Month and Title
Title-level statistics can provide information as to what is being used within a specific collection. For example, if a library subscribes to a "big deal" it is important from a cost perspective to verify that the titles are being used. What is the point of buying a collection if only a few titles are being accessed? It may be that it is cheaper to buy the individual title or warrant taking advantage of build-your-own packages when offered. Not all publishers provide title use. At the time of this writing, neither Morgan & Claypool nor Knovel provided title-level statistics. Potentially, a provider that does not provide adequate title-level statistics for analysis could find themselves on the chopping block when budget crises require a reduction in collections budgets. Usage and cost/use statistics were calculated in a number of analyses. Costs were provided by the libraries' acquisition department. Analyses and calculations were performed in Excel.
Results and Discussion
Platform Features
In addition to usage statistics, platform features, functionality and ease of use are equally important. A patron who is not able to easily access, navigate, and read an e-book, is less likely to use that e-book, a phenomenon noted in a recent e-book usage study where the reported use of e-books decreased over time (Shelton 2014). A poor user interface design and cumbersome navigation could lead to fewer uses. We identify the top features that our patrons need, or rather, demand. Again, these features vary from publisher and aggregator. We recommend that you obtain trials and have your users not only test the platform but provide feedback.
On all of the UF platforms, we reviewed the e-book interfaces to examine the following characteristics:
- Format(s) the e-books are available in
- The ability to create user accounts
- Availability of personal bookshelves
- Ability to annotate
- Ability to print
- Ability to download
- Mobile accessibility
There are additional features based on platform, but the seven features we analyze are the most common criteria to affect patron satisfaction. When determining format, it is important to determine if the book is available only in HTML, PDF, EPUB, or some combination, and match this to what you know of your readers and their preferences. The ability to create user accounts is a nice feature as it saves search histories and in some instances allows patrons to create personal bookshelves, and to highlight/annotate texts. The personal bookshelf allows patrons to select the books that are important for their research and provides an immediate access to the material. Highlights and annotation are important to some patrons since the notations they make can be easily looked up in an e-book -- a great quick reference tool. Two of the most frequently asked questions about e-books are if the patron can print out the entire book, and if so how or if not, why not. Publishers are unpredictable when it comes to the amount of printing permissible. Often, they are more generous with the content on their own platforms but severely restrict what an aggregator can allow. To complicate matters, the information on the amount of printing that is permissible for a specific title is not readily available or easily findable within the e-book content. This lack of knowledge can potentially lead to frustration for the patron. It is important that the providers state this information for each e-book. Another frequently asked question by the patron is if the e-book can be downloaded on a personal device (e.g. iPad, Kindle, computer, laptop, etc.). In the public library setting, this option is very popular and widely available -- not so with academic content. This can be especially important to scientists who are often in the field where they may not have online access, but wish to have offline materials loaded on an electronic device. Again, we posit that it is the responsibility of the provider to make this information prominent on the e-book, not hidden within the company product web site that the patron does not read. The last feature we list is mobile access. It is important for scientists (students or researchers) who are conducting field research to have readily available and easy access to content when and wherever needed.
In Tables 4 and 5, we highlight the platform features in our STEM collection. We also include the UF Libraries purchase type: perpetual or subscription. While not related to the platform itself, this feature is important to the bigger picture. Subscription models require annual fees as with a journal subscription. The content is always changing and the best part is it continually updates with new editions. The worst part is that you do not own the content and can lose it. When the subscription is through an aggregator platform, scores of books can disappear when their contract with a publisher ends and the publisher does not renew. In the sciences, the most prominent example of this is with the aggregator, Knovel. In some cases when Knovel's contracts with certain publishers ended, the publisher chose not to renew and their titles were removed. This pull-out happened with the publisher McGraw-Hill and more recently with Wiley. Additionally, removing pulled content from catalogs and discovery tools can be no easy task. Perpetual access models are when the library pays one time for the e-book or package and thereafter owns the content. The aggregator platforms for e-books is more complicated because the features such as printing and downloading vary based on the publisher restrictions.
Table 4: Publisher Platforms
| Platform | UF Purchase Type | E-book format | User Account | Personal Bookshelf | Highlights and Annotation | Print & download | Mobile Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CABI | Perpetual | No | No | No | Chapter and whole book | Mobile link | |
CHEMnetBASE | Subscription | No | No | No | Sections | App | |
ENGnetBASE | Subscription | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter | App | |
IEEE Xplore | Perpetual | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter | Mobile link | |
Science Direct | Perpetual | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter | App | |
SpringerLink | Perpetual | PDF; HTML | Yes | No | No | Chapter and whole book | App |
Synthesis | Perpetual | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter | None | |
Wiley | Perpetual | PDF; HTML | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter | App |
Table 5 Aggregator Platforms
| Platform | UF Purchase Type | E-book format | User Account | Personal Bookshelf | Highlights and Annotation | Print & download | Mobile Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Books 24x7 | Subscription | HTML | Yes | No | Yes | By page view | None |
EBL | Perpetual | PDF, HTML, EPUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Percentage limit on print/copy; whole book "loan" | App |
Ebrary | Perpetual | Yes | Yes | Yes | Chapter | App | |
EBSCO | Perpetual | PDF, ePub | Yes | Yes | Yes | Per page | Mobile link |
Knovel | Subscription | Yes | Yes | No | Chapter, section | App | |
MyiLibrary | Perpetual | Yes | Yes | Yes | Varies by publisher | App |
Usage
Though each institution's population is unique, we thought the reader would find it interesting to see details of the most popular STEM e-books at UF and what platform they are on. For all the platforms that provide title-level statistics, we downloaded BR1 reports and captured the titles with 50 or more uses for 2012 and 2013. We combined them all in a spreadsheet for each year, sorted by usage and pulled out the top 10 in Table 6. Six titles were in the top 10 for both years. All were on course reserves at some point contributing to their high usage. The titles in the Book24x7 platform and the single title from SpringerLink are simply part of the packages so instructors must have found them and made use of them for their classes. The MyiLibrary titles and the ebrary title would have been individually purchased, most likely by request.
Table 6: Most Popular STEM E-books
| Title | Publisher | Platform | 2012 Usage (rank) | 2013 Usage (rank) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Data Structures; Algorithms; and Applications in C++; Second Edition | Silicon Press | Books24x7 | 23,105 (1) | 5,601 (2) |
Failure of Material in Mechanical Design: Analysis; Prediction; Prevention; Second Edition | Wiley | Books24x7 | 10,711 (2) | - |
Soil Chemistry | Wiley | MyiLibrary | 4,168 (3) | 6,025 (1) |
The Little SAS Book: A Primer; Fourth Edition | SAS Institute | Books24x7 | 3,561 (4) | - |
Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists and Engineers | Oxford University Press | Books24x7 | 3,121 (5) | 4,404 (4) |
Biogeochemistry of Wetlands: Science and Applications | CRC Press | MyiLibrary | 2,693 (6) | 2,944 (7) |
Introduction to Aircraft Flight Mechanics: Performance; Static Stability; Dynamic Stability; and Classical Feedback Control | AIAA | Books24x7 | 1,962 (7) | - |
Fundamentals in Data Structures in C++; Second Edition | Silicon Press | Books24x7 | 1,951 (8) | - |
Introduction to Numerical Analysis Using MATLAB | Jones and Bartlett Publishers | Books24x7 | 1,760 (9) | 3,221 (6) |
Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook (8th Edition) | McGraw-Hill | EBRARY | 1,350 (10) | 2,492 (10) |
Water Quality & Treatment : A Handbook on Drinking Water: A Handbook on Drinking Water | McGraw-Hill | MyiLibrary | - | 4,970 (3) |
Treatment Wetlands, Second Edition | CRC Press | MyiLibrary | - | 4,394 (5) |
Bioprocess Engineering Principles; Second Edition | Elsevier Science | Books24x7 | - | 2,712 (8) |
Ceramic Materials | Springer | SpringerLink | - | 2,533 (9) |
Duplicate E-books
Inevitably, the question of duplication comes up with e-books. The first question being should you provide the same title in print and electronic form? Many times when a patron requests a book at UF, the selector will give them the option of print or electronic when available and a great deal of the time, the patron says, "Can we get both?" The answer to that question in tight budget times is a firm, "no." Then there is the issue of having duplicate e-books. The same title and edition, but on two or more different platforms. Why would a library do this? Most of the time, it is not by choice, but by accident. The library may have purchased a single title on one platform, but then purchased a package on another platform and that title is in the package. At UF, we have found it challenging to de-duplicate against our own holdings. The non-standardized use of ISBNs is a big culprit. For example, UF has run several patron-driven acquisition (PDA) or demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) e-book models and before loading the plan's e-book holdings, we attempt to de-duplicate records against our current holdings. But there are always titles that get missed. Batch loading is efficient but never perfect. This is always "unwanted duplication" as we do not wish to pay for an e-book twice. However unwanted, we will use the opportunity to do some comparisons. We identified a few of our e-book duplicates and compared their DRM restrictions and usage in Table 7. Does the platform make a difference in use? Does the DRM affect use? In a couple of cases, we can speculate that the more open book gets more use. The Springer book, Plant DNA fingerprinting and barcoding, had more use on the very open Springerlink platform as opposed to its more restrictive Springer Protocols platform where it had no use. The Elsevier book, Insect molecular genetics, had frequent use in 2013 on the EBL platform where the whole book could be borrowed and no use on the MyiLibrary platform which has more restrictions. The insect book is one of the few where can see the exact cost of duplication. A multi-user license via MyiLibrary cost us $106.22 but we paid $193.95 for a copy in EBL ($161.63 plus 2 short-term loans of $16.16 each). The EBL cost sounds egregious when compared but the MyiLibrary copy is not being used and so far the EBL book's cost per use is only $1.37. This illustrates how complicated e-book purchases and considerations are for libraries.
Table 7: Duplicate E-books
| Title | Publisher | Platform | Printing | Downloading | 2012 Usage | 2013 Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chemical Process Equipment - Selection and Design, 2nd revised edition (2010) | Elsevier | Knovel | By chapter | By chapter | N/A | N/A |
Books24x7 | By page view | None allowed | 2 | 3 | ||
Chemical Admixtures for Concrete | Routledge | EBSCO | 30 pages | 30 pages | 1 | 0 |
ENGnetBASE | By chapter | By chapter | 4 | 0 | ||
Chemical and process plant commissioning handbook : a practical guide to plant system and equipment installation and commissioning | Elsevier (also available in ScienceDirect) | MyiLibrary | 60 pages | 10 pages | 1 | 2 |
Books24x7 | By page view | None allowed | 2 | 0 | ||
Plant DNA fingerprinting and barcoding : methods and protocols | Springer | SpringerLink | Whole book | Whole book | 14 | 9 |
Springer Protocols | By chapter | By chapter | 0 | 0 | ||
Insect molecular genetics : an introduction to principles and applications | Elsevier | EBL |
20% of book
| Copy 5% | N/A | 142 |
MyiLibrary | 10% of book | 10% of book | N/A | 0 |
Cost per Use
We always want to know if what we added to our collections is being used and if we are getting a proper return on investment. For some of our e-book platforms we can calculate this by doing a cost-per-use calculation. In Table 8, we show the usage for 2012 and 2013 in four of our platforms. Why not all the platforms? These calculations are not as simple as they appear. The four examples in Table 8 are all subscriptions so we can easily take the cost of the subscription in that year and divide it by the usage from the same year. We are defining each "use" as one view of the content. In the case of these four providers, we seem to be getting our money's worth. Books24x7 has the best cost per use of both years. This is somewhat surprising as their platform is one of the most restrictive as users cannot print readily or download from it. We can hypothesize that "content is king." Books24x7 has a great many titles on computer programs and software that are extremely popular.
Table 8: Cost Per Use for 2012 and 2013
| Provider | Cost per Use in 2012 | Cost per use in 2013 |
|---|---|---|
Books 24x7 | $0.42 | $0.29 |
ENGnetBASE | $1.26 | $1.68 |
Knovel | $4.30 | $3.09 |
CHEMnetBASE | $5.88 | $3.81 |
Using Data to Change Practices
With so much data at hand and a good deal of experience behind us, we are making changes in our e-book acquisitions where we can to improve their performance. The first step is providing information to our colleagues. There has to be a concerted effort to effect change when there are over 50 librarians selecting in as many subject areas. We have used internal venues to educate all selectors on the complex issues surrounding e-books. Selectors are now encouraged to look beyond a potential "good deal" and examine content, platforms, licenses, and statistics closely before purchasing. When presented with an offer on an e-book platform we do not currently use, we request a trial, examples of reports and statistics, and a list of institutions with the platform so we can solicit feedback. We are consciously trying to move away from adding new platforms and encourage publishers to make their content available on existing platforms, on aggregated platforms and via PDA purchasing.
Our experiences and analytics have resulted in a more diligent approach to the management of our e-books. This is more labor intensive for both librarians and staff. To avoid duplicate e-books, new title lists must be checked against current holdings using more than one method as ISBNs are unreliable. Checking against title lists and publisher years is a necessary backup or a least spot checking if time is limited. Our own book vendor's system cannot reliably tell us if a new e-book is already in our collections, even when the e-book is on their own platform. An obvious systemic failure, but until rectified, librarians must check each potential purchase against the catalog before ordering.
Selecting an e-book for purchase is not the straightforward path choosing a print book is, especially if the title is available on multiple platforms. In our book vendor's ordering database, the only e-book option that shows currently is to the book vendor's platform. It takes extra work on the librarian's part to discover all the options and compare them. Take one of the titles in Table 6, Soil Chemistry, for example. This is a Wiley book and we have the title on the MyiLbrary platform. Why not purchase it on Wiley Online? Purchasing the title on MyiLibrary is the easiest and quickest method. The selector would see the title in our vendor database, click on it to purchase, and the title would be available to our patrons in two days. To look for other options and pricing, the selector would have to search in other venues. Even to go directly to Wiley would require contacting our representative and asking for a price quote. If they want to purchase they must request the order through our acquisition department. Wiley will require a license for the e-book or at best an addendum to our current license. Wiley may or may not turn on access to the e-book while they wait for the signed license and purchasing order. It could take weeks to have access. Sometimes, this extra work is worth it. Especially if the price is substantially better and access less restrictive. The e-book on Wiley would have unlimited multiple users and very little DRM while the same book in MyILibrary will have limited simultaneous users and severely restrict printing and downloading. There is a lot for a selector to determine and make decisions on -- all for a single book, but this is what UF librarians are doing now.
We have yet to abandon any platforms due to poor platform design, but the day may come as competition increases. Making these changes in a large institution is complicated as it rarely happens in a vacuum. For example, the computer science librarian may wish to change from Books24x7 to Safari for software e-books, but the business librarian cannot support the decision because their business e-books are not available in another platform than Books24x7. Cooperation and compromise are the name of the game.
Conclusion
Studies of scientists' use and perceptions of e-books demonstrate that the population is using e-books and this will only increase. Today, students may be using e-books more than faculty, but these same students will be the faculty in the near future. The studies also point out the importance of the right content to the science users but they find many of the restrictions and variability of e-book platforms to be frustrating. Our analyses shows that despite the limitations of a platform, if it has the information they want, it will get used. Our glimpse at the use of the same e-books on different platforms suggest the less restrictions on a book, the more use it will receive, but this would require a more rigorous study to draw stronger conclusions and could be of interest to those studying DRM. We demonstrate how challenging it can be to analyze and calculate a libraries' investment in e-books due to the discrepancies in reports from providers. We also highlight the great variability in features between different e-book platforms. Format, tools, access levels all change depending on the e-book platform and specified by the publisher. Librarians, have large, complex spreadsheets and charts to keep track of them all. It is our goal that these analyses will aid other science librarians in their future e-book purchases, helping them to ask the right questions of providers so they meet the needs of their users.
When science librarians are asked to consider the purchase of e-books, it is important to first identify the goals and objectives for these types of collection purchases. Considerations include the pros and cons of using a publisher or an aggregator, overall cost, and type of collection being purchased. It is crucial to understand the needs of your patrons, and more specifically on how the features, functionality and accessibility of the e-books meet those needs. Because each e-book platform is different. Gathering statistics on cost per use, usage, downloads is important so begin discussions prior to signing agreements with the publisher or aggregator and have them demonstrate the types of reports that they can or will produce. These statistics should guide your decisions on renewals in addition to submitting reports to your library colleagues and administrators who control the library budget. For most academic science libraries, the addition of e-books into an existing collection will continue to increase. Librarians need to take the initiative to evaluate the variety of e-book platforms and make selections based on what is best for them and for their patrons.
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