The first week of term has seen strong demand for access to eTextbooks.  As there are some factors which limit the Library’s involvement we thought it would be worth highlighting some of these.

• Contact the Access and Collections team to ascertain availability.  Just because an eTextbook isn’t available via Multisearch or the Library Catalogue nor available for purchase via GOBI it doesn’t mean we can’t ask the publisher to see what the options are
• Some publishers will not sell their eTextbooks to libraries.  This is about protecting their revenue preferring individual sales to students and academics.  Some eTextbooks from Wiley, Thomson Reuters, McGraw-Hill and Cengage are examples of this
• Other publishers may place restrictions on eTextbooks sold to libraries (for example limiting the number of simultaneous users or restricting printing or copying).  Basic rule of thumb – the more popular the textbook the more stringent the access conditions.  Examples include Cengage and McGraw-Hill.  Access and Collections gets notified immediately of turnaways and we can act quickly if there is an explosion of demand.  We may also have dialogue with the subject librarian to ascertain how many more copies should be purchased and/or whether print is an option
• Some publishers only sell their eTextbooks in packages.  The main example is Springer.   (We are purchasing two new Springer frontfile eBook collections – Earth and Environmental Science, Engineering)
• Some publishers charge like wounded bulls for their eTextbooks.  A recent example from LexisNexis – $7000 (annual subscription) for one eTextbook.  Obviously there would be significant budget implications should we commit to provide widespread access to eTextbooks along the lines of this pricing model
• Because there are so many different models we need to take a nuanced approach to purchasing (including subscription, lease, DDA, EBA, outright purchase, purchasing packages)
• Why so many different models?  Publishers are concerned about dropping sales from print books and protecting their revenue.   They are looking for ways to address this hence the changing market environment.  We have these conversations with them all the time…..
• Buying eTextbooks for certain courses and not others because of the publishers models compromises our role in terms of equity and consistent practice
• Transactional licences may be worth considering if we can scan from the print and if only a small part of the text is required – see this wiki page for more information. More suited to smaller classes.  Sometimes transactional licences are no cheaper than buying eTexts and are less useful as we are not getting the whole book nor permanent access, just a few months for a specific page range
• The traditional solution of print copies in high demand as 3 hour loans may continue to be the best and most cost-effective way to provide access in a number of cases
• We are writing a discussion paper for Library Committee to outline these issues including raising discussion questions about open access to resources