eBooks in Illinois
Academic Libraries
Outline of a talk made by Tom Peters (tpeters@tapinformation.com) on Monday, March 7, 2005 at the “eBooks in Illinois Academic Libraries” Conference (http://faculty.mckendree.edu/william_harroff/ebe/IAED.htm)
in Champaign, Illinois.
Consortial and Collaborative eBook Programs:
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Before we have four grill sessions with specific vendors,
let’s discuss the best of all possible consortial ebook programs.
I am making a distinction between consortial
and collaborative. Although both are
evident in ebook efforts, on rare occasions
consortial ebook programs
are not very collaborative, and some collaborative ebook
programs are not consortial.
This is not an exhaustive list.
A good, fair, reasonable price (of course)
The Pez Theory of Content proposed by Tom Sanville of OhioLink: Drive down the per-unit cost of digital
information, so that users can ingest digital content to their heart’s content
What should be the factors that go into setting the price of an ebook system?
Production and maintenance costs?
Selection or other attempts to predict use?
Actual use of the system?
What is use, anyway?
The manner in which ebooks can be used is
quite diverse.
Whatever the market will bear?
Do consortia focus too much attention on price?
Cost avoidance is one of the few measurable benefits of consortial and collaborative behavior between
libraries.
A good negotiation process
Everyone has all the information they need to make an informed decision
All disagreements (even within the consortium or group of collaborating
libraries) are based on accurate and complete information.
A good license agreement
Libraries are not asked to sign away any legal rights they have regarding
the content
A good collection
Vendor’s master collection contains lots of compelling content (i.e.,
content that users really want and need)
Elusive frontlist ebooks,
delivered at the same time (or before) the printed edition
Should a consortium allow users access to items in the master collection
that have not yet been purchased or leased by the consortium? EBL can enable up to 10 minutes of use per
title free of charge. Some vendors
enable a patron-driven selection model.
Vendor’s master collection grows at the right pace and in the right
directions
Authoritative texts
Quality control problems with some of the texts from the UVA
EText Center
Good markup
Some opportunity to select (and deselect) the titles in the collection
Content deals between publishers and vendors should not be
the principal driver of the collection that ultimately gets presented to the
user.
This places an additional burden on the consortium and its
members to make the selected collection worth the resources devoted to the
selection process.
As we move farther into the era of ebooks, how
are ebook collections going to be evaluated by
libraries, professional associations (e.g., ARL),
and accrediting agencies?
Full text access for all
Nagging questions and concerns about the “snippetization”
of some ebook projects, including the Google/Stanford/UMich project.
FYI, according to the OED, the word “snippet” was first used
in 1664.
No one is denied access to content in the collection
Nothing is ever checked out
This is one of the “natural” affordances
of digital content. The library
circulation model of print collections, where the user checks out an available
copy and has exclusive use of that copy during the circulation period, attempts
to ignore (or deny) this natural affordance.
Accessible to all
Example: Mobipocket
Reader is wonderful for sighted individuals who want to read their ebooks on PDAs and smartphones, but it is not very accessible to blind or
visually impaired individuals who use screen reader software to access ebooks.
TTS (text to speech software) could be embedded in reader software (e.g.,
Adobe Reader), in a separate add-on software program (e.g., PDF Aloud), or
included in the OS. It probably would be
best to have the TTS engine included in the OS.
Good administrative module
Examples: Content Reserve from OverDrive and LibCentral from
EBL.
Usage statistics
Selection processes
Acquisition and Invoicing processes
Good metadata
Just say no to content silos!
This would make a good protest slogan
Ebooks should not be relegated to
content silos. Integrate them with other
content and services provided by libraries.
Lots of functionality for navigating within (and across) ebooks, and for interacting with (and adding value to) ebooks
Annotations that can be saved by the individual reader and shared
This is one way in which use of an ebook
collection could actually add value to the collection.
Variable speed playback for digital audio books
This is one way in which digital content offers an improved
experience over analogue content, because with digital you do not get the
“chipmunk effect”.
Usable on all manner of devices
PCs (all operating systems)
Laptops
Tablet PCs
Ultra personal computers (e.g., OQO)
PDAs
Smartphones
MP3 players (when appropriate)
Efficient, effective, unobtrusive DRM
Transparent to all authorized users
Sufficient revenue for a fair profit for for-profit entities in the ebook “value chain”
Authors (sometimes)
Publishers (sometimes)
Vendors (sometimes)
Reasonable assurance of access in perpetuity
This is an area for risk management
Vendor cannot guarantee access in perpetuity
Libraries cannot guarantee demand in perpetuity
Some Case Studies
Neither of the first two case studies involves academic
libraries, but, like CARLI, both are start-up “consortia”.
Unabridged
Digital audio books for blind library users
Using the Content Reserve platform from OverDrive
Self-funded
Multi-State
Shared Collection
Circulation a little disappointing to date
We Can Do It Project
42 public and school libraries in “downstate” IL
Grant-funded during the startup year
Group purchase of content from LibWise
No consortial collection. Each participating library is developing its
own collection.
Circulation a little disappointing to date
Online communication has been very valuable to the member libraries
CARLI
CARLI is about “the sharing of collections, expertise, and programs.”
As the CARLI Membership Agreement states, “…participation in a consortium
requires collaboration in developing certain common policies and shared
decision making.”
Some Generalizations
and Recommendations
Why do consortial/collaborative ebook programs make inherent sense?
Because digital distribution is more efficient than paper-based
distribution systems, the number of copies needed within the system to meet
demand declines.
Ergo, if a group of libraries invest in a larger collective collection,
users will be better served.
Vendors, Library, and Consortia need to focus on compelling content and usage
Virtual Reference may be a cautionary tale here. It has received much interest and support
from the profession, but the usage statistics often are underwhelming.
This will entail quite a bit of training, orientation, and marketing of the
services of the new consortium.
One Nagging Concern: Fair Use is
being redefined
Fair Use used to be a general social contract that was
broadly defined by intentionally vague legislation. Now, in addition to these broad social and
legal contracts, many ebook systems are defining fair
use in terms of a percentage of the content that can be copied and pasted by a
user in a specified period of time.
Develop a collaborative long-term relationship with the vendor
Consummating an agreement that results in the lease or
purchase of an ebook collection is just the first
step.
Collaboration among libraries may lead to other types of collaborations and
positive outcomes.