Helpful links and Information for E-book Lending and it's current status
Helpful links and Information for E-book Lending and it's current status
Embedded Files
Distributors, Publishers, & the "Big Five"
Distributors, Publishers, & the "Big Five"
Libraries may choose to acquire E-books from distributors, such as OverDrive and hoopla, that work with multiple publishers and use digital marketplaces to offer a single access point to huge collections of E-books. They may also acquire E-books directly from publishers.
The "Big Five" are the publishing companies that dominate mass-market book sales:
-HarperCollins
-Hachette Book Group
-Penguin Random House
-Macmillan
-Simon and Schuster
These companies have all, in recent years, shifted from offering perpetual access to limiting libraries to metered access models. All but HarperCollins require libraries to repurchase access every two years; HarperCollins requires renewal after 26 checkouts of a title.
Sources & Further Reading:
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/the-future-of-ebook-pricing/
Lending Models
Lending Models
Even after acquiring E-book access, libraries must adhere to usage and lending guidelines set by publishers.
Below are some examples of lending restrictions that libraries may encounter.
One copy/one user - this model permits a single patron access to an E-book at a time
Simultaneous access - a single title purchase may be accessed by multiple users at once
The “Big Five” allow their titles to be loaned out under the one copy/one user model only.
Sources & Further Reading:
Handling the Demands of Patrons
Handling the Demands of Patrons
One way that libraries can maximize their responsiveness to patron demand within their budget is patron-driven acquisition. In a patron-driven acquisition(PDA) model, libraries are not obligated to pay for access until a patron actually checks out the item.
The cost-per-circulation (CPC) purchase model is a good example of this. Costs are accumulated with real demand by patrons. Several of the “Big Five” offer this model alongside their metered access models, but will only apply the CPC model to the older items that are in their back catalog.
Sources & Further Reading:
The link below leads to a guide produced by the Illinois Library concerning several databases that provide a variety of eContent, including e-books, for academic audiences. It summarizes several features of the databases, such as accessibility and user limit, in a table to allow for easy comparison of vendors.
https://guides.library.illinois.edu/ebook/vendorcompare
The link below considers how libraries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and touches upon the increasing demand for digital content in libraries of all kinds.
The link below discusses what the process of purchasing e-books is like for school libraries. Even though the article is from 2015 so the estimates on budgets might be outdated, it does give a good overview of what the process is like and reiterates the difficulty in finding specific information.
The link below is EBSCO's questions page, where it shares some information about how people can download their e-books, print them, what kind of devices they need to access it, and accessibility for people with vision issues.
https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/EBSCO-eBook-Accessibility-Guide?language=en_US
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse