A Two Year Journey with e-books: The University of
Texas Experience
The University of Texas has access to over 20,000 e-books and
participates
in multiple overlapping e-book consortia. The e-books have received steady
usage, they are included in the library's online catalog, and they have
been well received by faculty and students.
Nevertheless, it has been a challenge to incorporate e-books into
existing routines, and librarians continue to believe that their format
and functionality make e-books an inherently a new breed of information
species. These experiences have led to the formulation of a set of guiding
principles for the acquisition of e-books.
While early e-book experiences have been positive and benign, the
gold rush mentality in the e-book marketplace raises questions of potential
pitfalls which libraries and academics need to keep in mind. An important
part of this mix is the set of emerging international specifications and
standards which will affect e-book commerce.
UT-Austin Usage Examples: E-Books
vs Print Books (lifetime circulations)
| Title |
E-Book |
Print Book |
| Naturalistic Environments in Captivity for Animal
Behavior Research |
47 |
15 |
| How to Write a Successful Marketing
Plan |
37 |
45 |
| Play and Early Literacy Development |
33 |
77 |
| Learning Perl |
220 |
156 |
| Adaptation in Natural and Artificial
Systems |
50 |
47 |
| Utopia and History in Mexico |
42 |
4 |
| Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian
Cinema |
24 |
80 |
| Women's Health: Missing from U.S.
Medicine |
19 |
31 |
| American Rodeo: From Buffalo Bill to Big
Business |
14 |
8 |
| The AMA Style Guide for Business
Writing |
16 |
33 |
| Chemical and Biological Terrorism |
11 |
7 |
| Undue Process: the NCAA's Injustice for
All |
21 |
39 |
| Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems |
18 |
17 |
| Privatizing Russia |
17 |
65 |
7 Principles for acquiring scholarly
e-books:
- No proprietary hardware or software should be required
to read or access the book.
- Academic e-books should be an integral part of the scholar's
workstation;
a networked environment in which e-journals, aggregated full-text, indexes,
and other relevant scholarly material is accessible through a single window
opening into a world of permanent, integrated, cross-linked scholarly
resources.
- E-books should be persistent in terms of both content and network
accessibility.
- E-books should be user friendly and not require special knowledge
or skills to use or access.
- E-books should be library-friendly and not require unusual
authorization
procedures, configurations, clients, or disruptions to existing technological
infrastructures.
- E-books should be able to be read online or offline.
- E-books are byte bundles inherently different in form and function
from the printed book from which they originated. In other words,
current products are part of a a transtional stage.
A Librarian's E-book Concerns.
- We may live in digital times, but it's still an analog
world.
In other words, the jury is still out on how e-book users will respond
and how the e-book market will develop.
- Fragmentation. Competing technologies and formats,
fragmentation
of the market, lack of standardization, balkanization of what had been
a worldwide standard of communication (printed words on paper).
- Excessive Control. Excessive and intrusive digital rights
management of e-books could decrease their value to libraries as a means
of permanently communicating the knowledge and values of humankind.
- Premature Hype. The excessive hype in the news media about
e-book hardware devices and the gold rush mentality among corporations
hoping to be come key players in an emerging market, may combine to sour
early adopter consumers on the very real potential of e-books. Most early
e-book models are designed to first preserve copyrights and secondly to
insure a revenue stream, rather than to solve any existing problems of
consumers. Unless e-books address the needs of your library and clients,
librarians should be cautious.
- Ubiquitous e-books and libraries. The value of information
lies in its collection into standardized formats where it can then be easily
retrieved (libraries, bookstores, world wide web). If e-books are to be
of value, they need to achieve this type of ubiquity, utility, distribution,
and stability. And if they do, and titles remain forever available and
for sale, the role libraries have traditionally played in society could
change significantly.
Relevant emerging specifications and standards.
Dennis Dillon, Associate Director for Research Services, University of Texas Libraries, The
University
of Texas at Austin
