Mattingly "AI and Prompt Design: LLMs with Text Classification and Open Source"
The mad world of ebooks apla 2008
1. The Mad World of
Ebooks
Tony Horava
University of Ottawa
APLA presentation, May 9, 2008
2. Agenda
The ‘madness’ and scope of ebooks
Selection and collection development
Budgeting
Acquisitions and cataloguing
Providing access to ebooks
Assessing usage of ebooks
Ontario’s approach to ebooks
The future of ebooks
3. The ‘madness’ and scope of ebooks
Ebooks turn our traditional procedures &
paradigms upside down- how are they sold,
acquired, budgeted, catalogued, made accessible
What is an ebook anyway? No clear equivalent to
print book
Could include: Book series; reports; reference
works; scanned print books; born digital texts ;
special issues of journals; theses; government
publications.
Ebooks can be segmented by chapters
(PsycBOOKS) or incorporated with other content
(SpringerLink)
The discourse on what constitutes publishing
4. Selection and collection development
Tools:
Vendor systems such as Coutts, Blackwell, and
YBP.
Aggregators such as Ebrary, EBL and NetLibrary
Publisher sites
How to choose between these tools??
Selection:
Selecting title by title, or package by package?
Do you duplicate print with electronic?
How do approval plans integrate the ebook?
Who does the selection?
Collection development policies
Faculty and end user input
5. Budgeting
The many ways of paying for ebooks….
On book funds by subject
On a serials or continuations fund
On an electronic resources fund
On a consortial fund
On a special allocation
Combination of any of the above
6. Assessment of ebooks
We need to demonstrate cost-effectiveness and
value for what we spend
What value do ebooks add in relation to print
books, or other library materials?
How do ebooks contribute to learning outcomes
and are they integrated into instruction and the
teaching process?
Many ways of measuring value: usage statistics,
focus groups, user studies
7. Acquisitions issues
Acquisitions practices and procedures based on
traditional formats
A lot of data required to acquire ebooks: vendor
info, budget code, type of order, vendor code,
payment options, licensing agreement, MARC
records, purchase order, etc
What order code is available for ebooks?
Innovative Interfaces: ‘ebook’ or ‘ebook renewal’
Training of staff
8. A smorgasbord of licensing &
acquisition models
One-time cost + annual access fee
One-time cost + one-time platform fee
One-time cost with no annual access fee (closed
collection)
One-time cost + MARC records fee
One-time cost with multiple payment plan
Annual cost (subscription fee)
9. Licensing 'hot button issues'
Subscribing vs ownership (perpetual access)
Unlimited access vs concurrent number of users
Fixed collections vs expanding collections
Restrictions imposed by DRM (digital rights
management) systems: limits on printing,
downloading, and coursepacks
Exclusion of interlibrary loans
Option to local load on one's own platform
Portability: being able to migrate the content to
new formats
10. University of Ottawa order form
An e-resources order form to capture all the data
(is used for ebook collections)
Is submitted to an e-resources list that includes
Acquisitions staff, Cataloguing, and e-resources
unit
Ensures key players receive the same information
Includes: cost, term, fund code, location,
requestor, order type, cataloguing instructions,
license information, and type of resource
11. Cataloguing issues
Ensuring title-level access in the catalogue is
essential for promoting visibility and usage
Creating a viable workflow and regular
maintenance, as for print titles
Direct links or OpenURL links from a link resolver?
MARC records: from the vendor, or OCLC?
How to handle records for titles offered by
multiple aggregators, eg NetLibrary, ebrary
Customizing records, eg URL batch changes
The big challenge: Keeping the catalogue up-to-
date!
12. Cataloguing issues (cont’d)
Sampling records for accuracy, eg print ISBN;
original OCLC number; GMD [“electronic
resource”]; supplementary materials notes
The reproduction model – print record used as
the model….what happens with born-digital
ebooks?
The advent of FRBR (Functional Requirements for
Bibliographic Records) will change things
What about sharing vendor records with OCLC?
What are the implications of not doing this?
13. How many doors to ebooks &
ebook collections?
Via the OPAC
Via an A-Z Database page listing
Via subject pages
Via an ebooks publicity page
Via OpenURL links (eg SFX, Serials Solutions)
Via course management systems (eg WebCT or
Blackboard) – durable links
Via electronic reserves
14. “Approaches such as creating Web pages focusing
on e-books, including e-books on subject guides,
and publicizing new e-books on library homepages
are just a few ways to alert patrons to the availability
of ebooks. Because searching online catalogs for e-
books often has limited success, libraries should
strongly consider enhancing or improving the
functionality of search mechanisms that are used by
patrons to locate all types of electronic resources”
“Accessing E-Books through Academic Library Web
sites” Andrea Dinkelman and Kristine Stacy-Bates.
College & Research Libraries 68 (1) 45-58 Jan 2007
15. Usage statistics
What are we measuring and how do these
metrics compare?
For example, number of downloads, number of
searches, number of sessions, combination of
various metrics
Vendors present data in many different ways
How does this vary by discipline or type of
resource? (current; historical; chapters; full
works)
Are there parallels with reserves usage?
16. Challenges in interpreting usage
Certain subjects lend themselves better to e-book
format
Does the heavy use of ebooks reflect lack of print
books in various subject areas, or a need for
extra copies?
Are print & e-books used for different purposes?
What is the effect of promotion/publicity &
technology barriers on usage?
Incongruity in comparing ebook access (short)
versus print book circulation (long)
Do core e-book titles represent large percentage
of use?
17. Canadian Public Policy Collection & Canadian Health
Research Collection – about 8,000 documents
18. More statistics…
Eighteenth Century ACLS Humanities
Collection Online: Ebook Project:
Jan – Dec 2007 Sept 2006-Aug 2007
108,423 searches 1,525 searches
10,098 sessions 12,398 page views
19. Ontario’s approach to ebooks
OCUL: Ontario Council of University Libraries
Twenty universities, ranging from the very large
(Univ of Toronto – 64,831) to the very small
(Royal Military College – 1,941)
381,000 FTE (full-time equivalent) students
Approximately 180 products licensed
Total annual spend of about 11M
Voluntary model
Includes ejournal collections, index databases,
reference tools, and ebooks, and software (eg
RefWorks)
20. OCUL-IR Ebooks committee
Established in response to a need to deal with the
complexity of ebook offerings
Ebook proposals are evaluated/prioritized by the
committee
Information gathering and negotiation
Creates efficiencies in communication and pooling
of knowledge
Use of model license
Co-chairs: Warren Holder (U Toronto) and myself.
Three other members (Mary Ann Jameson,
Janice Adlington, and Carol Stephenson)
21. Accomplishments to date
Setting standards for a consortial ebook
agreement: a structured process and clear
objectives
Leveraging our collective power in the wild
marketplace of ebooks
Acceptance of local hosting on OCUL's ebook
platform
Springer ebook agreement (all 20 schools)
covering 2005-2008
Elsevier ebook agreement; several schools
participated
Ongoing negotiations with OVID re LWW ebooks
(nursing & medicine)
22. The Future of ebooks….
Will certainly grow in response to various factors:
Better integration with course delivery
Better usability of platforms
Better ebook readers
More access points and visibility
Business models that favour the online vs the
print (eg Springer)
A shakedown in licensing models
The Google effect
Greater acceptance of digital content in some
disciplines than others; will eclipse print eventually
23. US Trade Wholesale Electronic Book Sales
(Source: International Digital Publishing
Forum, Statistics)
24. A few caveats…
The data above represent United States revenues only
The data above represent only trade eBook sales via
wholesale channels. Retail numbers may be as much as
double the above figures due to industry wholesale
discounts.
The data above represent only data submitted from approx.
12 to 15 trade publishers
The data does not include library, educational or
professional electronic sales
The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is "All
books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-
held reading devices"
The IDPF and AAP began collecting data together starting in
Q1 2006
25. Ebooks in Asia
South Korea: The country's e-book market this
year is expected to amount to 140 billion won
(US$144 million), a surge of 220 per cent from
last year, according to the latest edition of eBook
Today
Japan: The Digital Content Association of Japan
projects that mobile phone sales of e-books will
increase to 11.7 billion yen (US$99 million) in
2007, compared to a projected 9.4 billion yen
(US$79 million) for Internet sales.
The convergence of mobile device technology and
delivery of ebook content is a key factor
