A recent study by Jason Price and John McDonald of Claremont Colleges investigates whether a research library could pursue "paperless acquisition" for newly published books. Price and McDonald compared purchases of print books made by 5 research libraries in 2006 and 2007 to the catalogs 4 of major aggregators of ebooks for libraries (EBrary, NetLibrary, EBookLibrary, and MyILibrary). They found that around 70% of the libraries' print acquisitions are not available through the leading ebook aggregators. According to their preliminary analysis, there is a mismatch between the content that some publishers (such as Routledge and Oxford UP) make available through ebook aggregators and what libraries purchase; also, some university presses do not yet appear to be making their publications available as ebooks. In some disciplines (art, music, romance literatures), over 80% of library purchases are not available electronically, while in other disciplines (economics) only 53% are not available as ebooks.
Following the successful completion of the MyCopy pilot project, the specialist publishing group Springer Science+Business Media has, with immediate effect, extended this eBook service to all academic libraries in the USA and Canada that have purchased Springer eBook Collections. All registered library patrons will be able to order a softcover copy of a Springer eBook for their personal use by clicking on a button on the Springer platform www.springerlink.com.
"Following the successful completion of the MyCopy pilot project, the specialist publishing group Springer Science+Business Media has, with immediate effect, extended this eBook service to all academic libraries in the USA and Canada that have purchased Springer eBook Collections. All registered library patrons will be able to order a softcover copy of a Springer eBook for their personal use by clicking on a button on the Springer platform www.springerlink.com."
"Latest figs from AAP (Association of American Publishers) put ebook sales up 173.9% through end July 2009.
A caveat to this …ebook sales made up just 0.6% of overall book sales in 2008 - according to Bowker - which explains the steep growth.
So - the ebook sales graph shows a lovely looking curve, but the steepness is really to do with the starting point. Growth always looks impressive from a zero base!
Let's look at the ebook market another way. If you read the headline about Amazon's Kindle, this sounds a bit like a revolution.
Day one of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and the Business Insider reports: "Kindle version of the book on top!" (The Business Insider 16.09.09)
Steve Windwalker at the Kindle Nation blog says this could be
"the biggest story of 2009 in the book trades."
As he points out, the most popular book in the world is selling more copies as an electric version than a print version at the most popular bookstore in the world.
Or, another version of the story - one week later - in the same news source:
Kindle verdict: nothing special" The Business Insider, 22.09.09
"The Lost Symbol sold just 100,000 in e-books format according to Doubleday. Overall Doubleday sold 2 million copies. The 5% ratio of e-books to print is about in-line with the average for book sales."
You are at the Home Page of a web-based collection of ebooks designed for use in libraries.
There are many thousands of ebooks in the dawsonera catalogue, produced by academic publishers around the world. Your institution may purchase a selection of these to create a tailored collection of ebooks for you to read. If ebooks have been purchased, you can find and read them by using the Reader Portal.
Springer's digital STM collection: "* More than 3,500 New eBooks and eReference Works Every Year
* Ownership Business Model
* Unlimited Simultaneous Use
* Over 27,000 eBooks Available " Claims to provide full integration into catalog and usage stats
Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information, today announced the availability of more than 4,000 eBooks on ScienceDirect. eBooks on ScienceDirect comprise high-quality selected titles published from 1995 to the present. These include scientific and technical books spanning 18 subject areas, as well as books from renowned imprints including Pergamon and Academic Press. The launch is a major expansion to the reference works, handbooks and book series already available on ScienceDirect.
"Jason Price and John McDonald, from Claremont Colleges, have completed a study profiling various ebook aggregator collections to their print collection. Their goal, to find out if eBooks can supersede the print collection, or just supplement the collection. They presented this in Charleston last November, but have now finalized their stats and have posted the presentation and results. The study, To supersede or supplement: profiling aggregator e-book collections vs. our print collections, found that they cannot supersede the print collection with eBooks as 70% of their print collection is not available in ebook format. So, eBooks will have to supplement the collection."
The programs at two recent conferences (the Charleston Conference and London Online) confirm that ebooks have established themselves in libraries. While the trade and consumer book markets still struggle to find an affordable and compelling ebook reader, library users have embraced the ebooks connected to the library e-collection and accessible via the PC or laptop they typically use.
"Pan Macmillan ebooks are now available for reading on the iPhone. In partnership with Lexcycle Stanza, the popular reading application, you can now read on the move. To read an ebook on the iPhone purchase and download the book from this page (scroll down for Pan Macmillan books available on the iPhone), and follow the instructions below."
"MyiLibrary™ is Ingram Digital Group's online eBook and eContent resource for academic, medical, professional and corporate libraries the world over. Our unique aggregation platform offers organizations the ability to acquire and access digital content on an individual title, publisher-specific or subject collection basis, based on their unique requirements and resources.
With nearly 160,000 titles currently available, covering all major academic disciplines, and an additional 1,000 titles being added weekly, MyiLibrary has the most comprehensive online eContent resource available on the market today. We work with the world's leading commercial publishers including McGraw Hill, John Wiley, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Springer and Elsevier, as well as exclusive access to intergovernmental publications from groups such as The International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization."
This article investigates readers' requirements regarding fiction electronic books, as compared to electronic textbooks. The EBONI Project, which defined a set of best practice guidelines for designing electronic textbooks, provided the methodology to support an exploration of the usability of fiction ebooks in a recent study. It was found that the general guidelines for the design of textbooks on the Internet can also be applied to the design of fiction ebooks. Additionally, in terms of the electronic production of fiction ebooks, the same study suggested that concentrating on the appearance of text, rather than the technology itself, can lead to better quality publications to rival the print versions of fiction books. This article discusses these results together with some from similar studies in order to draw a picture of what readers expect from fiction ebooks.
Springer eBook Collection claims to be "The World's most comprehensive online scientific book collection." There are some contact names on this website that we may want to include as interviewees in our study.
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Off the Shelf: E-book Aggregators.
Polanka, Sue (author).
FEATURE. First published May 15, 2008 (Booklist).
Like many librarians, you're beginning to purchase e-books from a variety of publishers, and you're confused by all the different licensing agreements, platforms, and pricing models. A solution to this madness? Use an e-book aggregator. Aggregators partner with multiple publishers to supply content (e-books, audio books, other media) and provide a platform for libraries and end users to search, order, access, and download the content on the Web. We'll focus here on three of the larger academic aggregators-EBL, ebrary, and MyiLibrary. Ebooks Corporation's EBL (Ebook Library) partners with 250 academic and trade publishers, offering more than 85,000 titles. Ebrary partners with 285 publishers to offer more than 120,000 e-books and content databases. The newest platform, Ingram Digital Group's MyiLibrary, partners with 250 publishers and offers more than 110,000 titles. "
U21 eBooks is a bold step in a new electronic publishing direction. The multi-media books that you will find on this site are written and designed specifically for electronic delivery, and go well beyond the simple digitizing of text.
The on-going series is a collaboration between members of the Universitas 21 international network of leading universities and Melbourne University Publishing. Each book is edited by U21 academics working in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and consists of six to eight essays on international themes that lend themselves to innovative use of new technologies.