Romance Novels At Brown Online: an 18month Study of Ebook Models and Use

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Romance Novels? At Brown? Online? an 18-month
Study of Ebook Models and Use

• Anne Cerstvik Nolan
• Electronic Resources Coordinator
• Brown University Library
• NETSL Spring Conference, April 4, 2008

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Where is the ebook list?

• Summer 2005, ebook group forms
• How exactly is an ebook defined?
• We have how many ebooks?
• Redefining the online catalogue
• How on earth are we going to make this work and
  not confuse users (or ourselves)

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Ask and They Shall Come!

• Vendor demos
• Picked 3 models
• Funding allocated
• Originally 20,000
• Now what do we do with all of these ebooks

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Our Ebook Web Page
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Choosing an Ebook Model

• Models selected
• Package A 591 titles
• Travel literature
• Popular fiction
• Package B 27,831 titles
• Academic titles
• Package C 41,000 titles
• Academic titles

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So How Do the Models Work?

• Package A
• One checkout at a time
• Loan period two weeks
• Books are owned collections with access for five
  years at no cost
• Printing is one page at a time
• No downloading

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So How Do the Models Work?

• Package B
• Unlimited user access
• Books are leased
• Proprietary ebook reader
• Cool tools beat note cards every time
• Printing was one page at-a-time but changed to
  1-40 pages per session
• No downloading

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So How Do the Models Work?

• Package C
• All subjects, but more STM than others
• Flexible, options included demand-driven
  selection, librarian acquisition, short-term
  loans
• Platform fee of 6,000
• Non-linear lending is 325 days per year
• Once purchased, books are owned
• Printing is one page at-a-time
• Downloading is available for different lengths of
  time

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Problems Anyone?

• Multiple user access
• Downloading a reader
• Printing issues
• Excessive printing
• Why cant I print from this ebook?
• Downloading issues
• Ebooks on course reserves
• Does this work on a Mac?

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Eighteen Months Later

• Package A
• 2,585 accesses (are these checkouts?)
• Biggest users?
• 2132 accesses were in Literature
• Romance novels 72 titles accessed one title
  accessed 82 times!
• 282 accesses in Travel/Geography
• Biggest losers?
• Mysteries
• Lots of zeros

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Eighteen Months Later

• Package B
• 21,791 user sessions
• 468,480 pages viewed
• 7,199 pages copied
• 70,792 pages printed
• Top subject areas?
• History
• Social Sciences
• Business and Economics
• Political Science

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Eighteen Months Later

• Package C
• 227 titles bought (since August 2006)
• 2,573 books browsed online
• 1,974 books read online
• 2415 downloads
• 196 auto-purchases
• 4,242 short-term loans

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Eighteen Months Later

• Top subject areas for Package C
• Social Sciences
• STM
• Humanities
• Social Sciences and STM close with Humanities a
  distant third

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Books Auto-Purchased
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Books Browsed Online
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Books Read Online
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Short Term Loans
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Where do we go from here?

• Issues
• Cost
• Can we afford to keep all models?
• Duplications (both print and online)
• Approval programs
• Scholarly Resources Librarians use
• Occasional misuse
• We already told you not to print the whole book!

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Where We Ended Up April 2007

• Renew current subscription to ebrary. ebrary
  offers good value and content for the money,
  requires little staff intervention, and is liked
  and used by our clientele. The 16,000
  investment seems well spent.
• Discontinue the EBL short-term loan model, and
  suppress all EBL records in Josiah except those
  for the 300 titles we have purchased. Subject
  librarians will be able to use EBL LibCentral to
  purchase ebooks.

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Where We Ended Up April 2007

• Worked with subject librarians and Acquisitions
  staff on how to search and order from the three
  different interfaces NetLibrary, eBop (ebrarys
  new interface), and EBL, as well as directly from
  publishers.
• Transition to GOBI for ebooks as they become
  available in that platform.

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Current Environment

• License agreements for all three vendors through
  GOBI and ordered by SR librarians
• Other vendor titles ordered by the Electronic
  Resources Coordinator
• Working to add ebooks to the approval plans
• License agreements for anything vaguely
  electronic reviewed by ERC
• 243,255 ebooks (ARL counts)

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Questions?

• Contact
• Anne Cerstvik Nolan
• Electronic Resources Coordinator
• Brown University Library
• 401.863.3577
• anne_nolan_at_brown.edu