SPEC Kit 313: E-book Collections · 39
e-Book Acquisition Criteria
13. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is Not Important and 5 is Very Important, how important are the
following criteria in deciding to acquire e-books? N=73
N 1-Not
N=30
2
N=26
3-Somewhat
N=58
4
N=59
5-Very
N=65
Allows for multiple
simultaneous users
73 1 11 15 46
Ability to print content 73 2 5 21 45
COUNTER compliant statistics 73 2 3 15 24 29
Ability to lend e-book to
other libraries (ILL)
73 13 10 20 13 17
MARC records 72 9 21 42
Ability to include e-book in
course management system
or e-reserves
72 4 6 25 37
Ability to download to reader 72 7 10 19 24 12
Allows for sharing in a
consortium
72 20 8 26 9 9
Please briefly describe any other criteria that are very important to an acquisition decision. N=22
Ability to download whole e-books or portions of e-books on varying storage devices, for example, flash drive, etc.
Ability to purchase perpetual access.
Ability to download is important period. I’m unclear if this question refers to downloading to a mobile device (we
still need lots of format work there) or just the use of PDF reader, where most of our current e-books are most highly
utilized. I would appreciate seeing much less reliance on MARC records in the purchases as most libraries should
be openly admitting that our users are relying less and less on the catalog for many things and have begun very
reliant on e-resource A-Z lists, federated searching, and openURL for access to e-content. We should be pushing all
e-resource access in the same direction.
Affordability preservation.
Again, the relative importance of the criteria above can vary greatly, depending on the specific situation. For example,
provision of MARC records is very important when we’re buying a large collection, not very important for acquiring
individual titles.
Cost is of course always a factor. Availability of the e-book at the same time the print is published is another factor
if the e-book is delayed we will likely purchase print to get the book to the faculty or patron who wants it now, rather
than waiting 6 months to get it electronically.
Currency of e-book availability. Print often precedes e publication, often precluding purchase of e.
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