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6. Are you currently ordering ebooks through aggregators (e.g. NetLibrary, ebrary, EBL)? Directly from publishers (Wiley, Springer, Elsevier, etc)? Through a book purchasing vendor (e.g. YBP, Coutts)?
- For the most part one can say that our respondents Respondents are doing all three:
- ordering through aggregators,
- directly from publishers
- through a book purchasing vendor.
- Given the fact that those respondents using GOBI for title-by-title searching are typically purchasing a title from either Ebrary, NetLibrary, or EBL, the distinction between an aggregator and a purchasing vendor is cloudy at best.
- MyiLibrary itself can probably be considered an aggregator and a purchasing vendor simultaneously.
- How an ebook is obtained is direclty directly related to how it is made available.
- For title-by-title acquisition, respondents indicated a preference for odering ordering through a purchasing vendor. If the purchasing vendor offered seveal several options with respect to platform or aggregator, an individual respondent might have indicated a favorite, but among all respondents there appeared to be no clear favorite. In general, for title-by-title purchasing, going directly to the publisher was a last resort. On the other hand, respondents
- Respondents readily contacted publishers directly when they were interested in obtaining subject packages of ebooks. OhioStateUniversity's relationship with OhioLINK is a special case.
7. Are you ordering e-book packages, single title e-books, or both?
- All libraries interviewed are ordering both e-book packages and "one-offs".
8. How are you handling special ordering and payment considerations related to sub-categories of e-books, such as e-textbooks (special licenses), e-reference books (ongoing maintenance fees), o-books (xml, personalization features), local downloadable pdf's (may require access control), e-book series (continuation po's)? For example, many e-reference books now require annual payments to maintain or upgrade access.
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9. How important is interface when deciding whether you will purchase a title or package and from whom? There was a mixed
- Mixed response to this question.
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- Responses ranged from the interface being very important to only somewhat important.
- Many reported that they try to have a consistent interface for end users.
- Everyone, with the exception of one responder said that if the e-book content is needed and not available on a preferred interface, they would
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- plan to buy the e-book anyway. One person indicated that if the interface did not meet with certain technical specifications, they would not purchase the e-book.
10. How are you handling the pre-order search/verification process and vendor assignment for single title e-book orders? The majority of respondents indicated that for title-by-title acquisitons, selectors/bibliographers conducted the pre-order search/verification step. Some respondents acknowledged doing this step but did not specify whether the people involved were acquisitions personnel or selectors/bibliographers. One respondent stated that since they only ordered subject packages of titles, they did not worry about title duplication as such. Those respondents who regularly use GOBI (YBP) or MyiLibrary (Coutts) for doing title-by-title ordering used these vendors' web-based utilities to do their duplicate searching. Some respondents also checked directly with publishers' sites although it is unclear under what circumstances this was done. Several respondents mentioned that searching WorldCat/OCLC was not useful for this purpose.
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