Library Faculty/Staff Scholarship and Research
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/11
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Item Ebook Collection Development in Academic Libraries: Examining Preference, Management, and Purchasing Patterns.(Choice, 2020) Novak, John; Day, Annette; Ohler, L. AngieThe practice of acquiring ebooks and managing them within the collection is complex. Through survey results and a review of the literature, this report attempts to measure the significance of the ebook format within the collection, the procedures and preferences academic libraries have for acquiring ebooks, and the perceptions librarians have of the acquisition and management workflows. This survey and white paper aim to provide empirical context around the factors that are having the most influence on the way academic libraries acquire and integrate ebooks into their collections.Item A Place at the Table: Health Sciences Librarians and Consortial E-Book DDA Selection, Purchasing, and Management(2015-05-17) Douglas, C. Steven; Harrington, Eileen G.Objectives: The University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium consists of the 16 libraries from Maryland’s diverse public universities and colleges, including a research university, a distance education university, a liberal arts college, professional schools in law and the health sciences, HBCU institutions, and two system centers. A pilot was implemented to explore the feasibility of a joint demand driven acquisition (DDA) e-book model. Methods: A committee of ten—including the collection manager from the health sciences library and a health sciences librarian from one of the system centers—convened to design and manage the pilot. The consortium leadership provided a budget of $100,000, and the committee selected a broad profile, focusing on the subject areas offered at the system centers, which offer several interdisciplinary and inter-institutional courses. One goal was to provide greater equity in access to resources across institutions. The committee decided to pilot a novel consortial DDA model that limited the lending of each purchased book rather than providing a price multiplier. A simple questionnaire was devised to measure participation by campus. Results: The pilot went live in August 2013 with an initial load of 6560 titles into USMAI’s shared catalog. The original model was to pay for 6 short term loans and purchase the book at print list price on the 7th. A purchase entitled the consortium to 14 short term loans per year with an additional copy being purchased at print list price on the 15th. Over the course of the year the committee removed certain titles from publishers who demanded exorbitant increases in the cost of short term loans and added others. Currently the shared DDA collection contains 25,077 titles. An analysis of usage shows that the users of all libraries in the system have benefited from the program, and funding for the pilot was approved for a second year. Conclusions: A consortial e-book DDA program can be a cost-effective way of equitably increasing access to a greater number of resources for library users. As e-book models for libraries continue to evolve it is vital that libraries work with publishers to design systems that are mutually beneficial. It is our hope that other consortia will adopt this type of model so that it will continue to be viable in the marketplace.Item Ebook Use and Attitudes in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014-04) Corlett-Rivera, Kelsey; Hackman, TimothyA survey of more than 1,300 faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Maryland generated a wealth of data on use and opinions of e-books among those users. While the initial purpose of the survey was to gather data that would aid humanities and social sciences librarians in making collection development decisions for their academic departments, the data will also be useful to all academic librarians who make decisions about e-books for their institutions.Item Are Ebooks Used Equally Across the Disciplines?(Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) Annual Meeting, 2013-07-22) Gray, Teddy; Carroll, Alexander JItem Navigating User Limits and E-book Device Compatibility Testing(2013-10-29) Ippoliti, Cinthya; Tchangalova, NedelinaWith the increased presence of ebooks in our collections, ebooks present specific challenges for our users. The UMD Libraries are attempting to address these needs by conducting an internal usability testing project to identify issues such as accessibility, discoverability and general functionality. This project will lead to the creation of a troubleshooting guide for users as well as accompanying programming slated for Spring in the form of an open house where we will work with our campus community to get readers and devices e-book ready.Item Faculty and Student Use and Opinions of E-Books at University of Maryland(2012-08-14) Hackman, Timothy; Corlett-Rivera, KelseyLike most university libraries, the University of Maryland Libraries purchase e-books from a variety of vendors and in a variety of formats, and statistics show that our e-books are heavily used by our patrons. Also like most university libraries, we face space constraints and other factors that increasingly pressure us to purchase a significant portion of our collection in e-book form, rather than in print. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that many patrons still prefer print. Many of our colleagues have experienced interactions similar to those reported by Cynthia Gregory (2008), wherein a student shown a catalog record for an e-book responds, “But I want a real book.” Beyond such amusing anecdotes, however, it was clear that there was a serious gap in what we knew about our users’ preferences for print or electronic books. Will scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences, for example, support a collection shift to e-books, which may not be compatible with research methods practiced and taught in these disciplines? The purpose of this study, then, was to gather data on use of and attitudes about e-books among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland (UMD). To keep the quantity of data manageable while providing a thorough cross-section of the Humanities and Social Sciences departments on campus, we limited the survey to participants from three colleges: Arts and Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Education. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to learn about user preferences for accessing certain kinds of written materials (e.g., scholarly monographs, edited collections, reference works, etc.), difficulties encountered when identifying, accessing, and/or using e-books, and the suitability of e-books to research methods in disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences. Research questions included: 1. Do (or how often do) Humanities and Social Sciences faculty and students use e-books for research purposes? Do (or how often do) they use e-books for recreational reading? 2. How do Humanities and Social Sciences faculty and students identify, access, and use e-books for their research and/or recreational reading? Which e-book sources and/or collections do they use most frequently? 3. For what materials in their discipline do Humanities and Social Sciences faculty and students prefer the Libraries to buy e-books? For what materials do they prefer us to buy print books? 4. How do use and attitudes compare among UM respondents of different statuses (faculty, graduate student, or undergraduate student) and colleges? Conducted in spring 2012, the survey netted 1,343 valid responses, an overall response rate of 8.6% (and, for faculty, a response rate as high as 24.8%). This presentation highlights some of the most interesting data and results from the survey.