The IRWG meeting notes are now available here.   We will be putting the following statement about VitalSource eBooks into the next UL report for Library Committee.  Comments on this to any members of IRWG are welcome.
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The Library’s Information Resources Working Group recommends that we no longer support eTextbooks via the VitalSource platform. Some of the concerns with VitalSource are:
• Only available as subscriptions requiring ongoing budget to manage
• Access is limited to small numbers of simultaneous users
• Restrictive digital rights management for printing and downloading
• Concerns about the user experience / interface
• Concerns about how VitalSource is treating the privacy of user data when they create an account with VitalSource to use some of the advanced features
• Problematic licence agreements

As the Library has actively encouraged use of alternative sources wherever possible we only have 3 VitalSource subscriptions we are maintaining at present:

Questioning Gender, 3rd Edition
An Introduction to Political Philosophy, 3rd Edition
International management : managing across borders and cultures : text and cases

We would like to manage these out of our eBook collection from the end of the current subscriptions, or by 2022 whichever comes later. This decision would also mean no new VitalSource eBooks would be purchased from 2022.

This means that courses using required texts where the only e-version available is VitalSource will either need to:
a) rely on access to print copies only where available, or
b) encourage students to purchase their own copy, or
c) use alternative sources from 2022.

This decision will be communicated as widely as possible so courses directly impacted have time to consider alternative access before 2022 teaching. Support will be available from subject librarians in sourcing alternative texts.