To Buy or Not to Buy: That Is the Question

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To Buy or Not to Buy That Is the Question
E-Book Acquisition at the University of Macau
Library
Paul W.T. Poon, Ph.D. University
Librarian University of Macau June 2008 E-Book
Conference HK
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Contents

• Emergence of E-Books
• To Buy or Not to Buy UMs Needs for E-Books
• UMs Unique Situation
• UMs E-Book Collection Development and Management
  Policy and Practices
• Concluding Remarks

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Emergence of E-Books

• E-Databases (Libraries started to use during
  1970s)
• E-Journals (Libraries started to use during early
  and mid-1990s)
• E-Books
• Libraries began to collect end of 20th century
  and beginning of 21st century
• Became a permanent feature in the last 3 5
  years

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Emergence of E-Books (II)

• A TCR (The Charleston Report) survey of 64
  librarians from primarily academic libraries in
  USA at the end of 2007 (TCR November/December
  2007, Vol. 12/No. 3)
• All except one planned to increase the holding of
  E-Books
• 37 of the 64 librarians noticed an increased
  usage of E-Books

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Therefore, to Buy or Not to Buy?
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To Buy or Not to Buy UMs Needs for E-Books

• Increasing demand on library materials
• A bigger and more demanding users group
• Inter-disciplinary courses

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A Bigger and More Demanding Users Group

• Increasing number of faculty members (about 400
  in year 2007)
• Increasing number of students (about 6,400 in
  2007)
• Ten-Year Development Plan (2007/8 to 2016/7)
• Student number to rise from 6,400 to 10,000 70
  to 80 Ug, and the remaining Pg (one-third should
  be MPhil or PhD students)

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A Bigger and More Demanding Users Group (II)

• Within 5 years, 70 of faculty members should
  have a PhD (or equivalent) with a 30 senior
  staff ratio
• Promote research culture
• Earmark 10 of recurrent expenditure to research

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A Bigger and More Demanding Users Group (III)

• Provide a variety of continuing education
  programmes

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Inter-Disciplinary Courses

• Offer a wide range of programmes, particularly
  niche courses e.g., Macau Studies, Gaming
  Management
• Whole Person Education and co-curricular
  programmes

THEREFORE, greater demand on popular titles
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E-Books Can Help!!

• Multi-User Accessibility

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To Buy or Not to Buy UMs Needs for E-Books (II)

• Users have used e-Databases/e-Journals and found
  it convenient. They come to expect the same with
  books
• Todays students are
• Digital natives
• Millennials/Generation Y

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E-Books Can Help!!

• Available on the web
• Wired and hyper-linked

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To Buy or Not to Buy UMs Needs for E-Books (III)

• About 280,000 volumes, but running out of
  shelving space shortly
• THEREFORE,
• E-Books can help!

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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices

• Started to buy e-Books from Ebrary in 2006
• At present, e-Book collection
• English titles Around 35,000 titles
• Chinese titles Around 7,000 titles (Apabi)
• Based on unique background and situation,
  different libraries have different collection
  development policy

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UMs Unique Situation
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UMs Unique Situation

• Five Faculties
• Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)
• Faculty of Education (FED)
• Faculty of Law (FLL)
• Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSH)
• Faculty of Science and Technology (FST)
• No of teaching staff
• No of students

about 400
about 6,400
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UM Library Resources (as of 31-12-2007)
Items Quantity
Collection (All printed and a/v materials) Around 286,352
Print journals (Incl. ceased titles) Around 4,000
Databases (IEEE, EBSCOhost, ) Around 87
Full-text E-journals Around 30,000 titles
Newspapers Around 70 titles
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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices

• Different Faculties have different treatment
• FBA FST Use English as teaching medium
  therefore, English e-Books are acquired
• FSH FED Use both English Chinese therefore,
  Chinese books are needed. But too few up-to-date
  Chinese e-Books are published. Have to acquire
  print copies
• FLL Use Portuguese in some courses. Not too
  many Portuguese e-Books.

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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices (II)

• Selection Policy
• E-Versions Vs Print Versions
• Print copies are preferred by users because
• Easier reading
• More convenient printing-out
• E-Copies are preferred by library staff because
  they are easier to handle

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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices (III)

• In the case of journals, E-Versions are preferred
  because
• Journal articles are shorter
• Printing out is easy

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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices (IV)

• E-Reference Usage not high
• For quick information -- Google or Wikipedia
• Readers education is important

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UMs E-Book Collection Development Policy and
Practices (V)

• Library Collaboration
• UM is the only public-funded university in Macau
  and comparatively well-resourced
• Other public or private academic institutions are
  not well-funded / Subjects taught not compatible
• Difficult to establish co-operation scheme
• Look for co-operation with libraries in Hong Kong

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Forum on Library Collaboration in the Web 2.0
Age -- an International and Regional
Perspective?Web 2.0 ???????? -?????????????Co
-organized by UM Library and JULAC 5 September
2008University of Macau Library

• ALL ARE WELCOME!

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Library Forum on 5 September 2008 University of
Macau Library

• Keynote speakers
• Dr. Rush Miller (University of Pittsburgh
  Library, USA)
• Ms. Sherri Schmidt (Arizona State University
  Library, USA)
• Mr. Michael Robinson (Hong Kong Institute of
  Education Library)
• Dr. Paul W.T. Poon (University of Macau Library)
• ALL ARE WELCOME!

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Concluding Remarks

• UM Library will increasingly acquire more e-books
• A survey will be conducted to gauge the level of
  usage of e-Books
• It is hoped that the technical set-up and format
  of e-Books will improve
• More publicity, marketing and users education of
  e-Books are needed

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Thank you!