The Information Resources Working Group (IRWG) has been wrestling for some time with the problem of increasingly expensive eTextbooks.  After much debate and discussion, this is the approach we have landed on for 2020:

• eTextbook/eBook recommendations continue as usual (eg GOBI selection cart, email acquisitions@libr.canterbury.ac.nz, recommend a resource for the Library web form)
• eTextbooks over $NZ2000 in value will go through this process as a six month trial.  On receipt of the recommendation and having confirmed the price/model, Access and Collections will email IRWG members with the textbook/cost/model details.  To assist timely with decision-making, IRWG members will have 2 working days to raise any objections otherwise LAC will proceed with the purchase.  Any objections raised will go to the next IRWG meeting  (IRWG normally meets the first Friday of the month).  Access and Collections will inform the recommender as to the status of their recommendation.  This trial (including the details of what was spent) will be reviewed by IRWG in July 2020
• eTextbooks that can only be purchased in packages will go to IRWG for advice.  Trust funds may assist us with funding eBook packages particularly where the trust description relates to the subject of the package

Access and Collections will be allocating more money to the book budget in 2020 to help with the growing costs of eTextbooks.  I think I have said this every year for some years now … the eTextbook market continues to be a volatile one as publisher models keep changing.  This means we need to continually adjust our approach.   Some models that we were once very useful and cost-effective for us (patron-driven acquisitions) are now becoming less viable as publishers withdraw high demand content from these models or dramatically increase their prices.  eTextbook provision is a hot topic in the wider Library community and we expect to be discussing this again with colleagues at the annual CAUL Content Coordinators Forum in February.  Some of the publisher models are very difficult for libraries to support however we are acutely aware the content is in demand and would be well used.  Paid access to high demand eTextbooks is still the only option in many cases however one of our goals in 2020 is to put more work into raising awareness around and supporting open educational resources.