66 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
Challenges of e-Book Collections
30. Please list up to three challenges of including e-books in the library’s collections. N=67
Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3
Acceptable archival access Convincing old school staff Inadequate vendor support
Acquiring catalog records Getting records into the catalog in a
timely fashion
Ordering e-books requires a separate
pathway than ordering print books
Acquisitions workflow Acceptance of new format (mostly
problem for older librarians)
Making sure user can access -e.g., can
download readers, do they have a good
enough connection, do they know how
to access
Acquisitions: no single portal or resource
for selectors to view availability (no
equivalent to BIP for e-books, for
example)
Usage: ability to integrate with course
management systems (for marketing,
ease of access, etc.)
Developing policies and guidelines for
collections development, e.g., proportion
of e to print browsability accessibility,
findability
Advertising titles. Paying extra charges for perpetual
access.
Keeping track of updated editions.
Aggregators’ constraints on printing/
copying and other platform eccentricities
No single source (“Books in Print”)
identifying if a book is available
electronically
Library does not have internal consensus
on e-books.
Bibliographic control User education Technological challenges
Budget limitations restrict growth. Books get removed by the publisher/
aggregator without due notice.
The latter causes record maintenance
misfires.
Competition for funds from other
resources. Library and personal printing
costs are increasing.
Content is incomplete. Images and
charts in the health sciences are missing
at times. Navigation of screens makes
for difficult reading.
Rental access, with updates, deprives
users of earlier data.
Cost, especially in today’s economic
climate and especially when the e-book
costs more that the print format.
The lack of standardized and satisfactory
licensing agreements.
Lack of significant demand from our
users compared with e-journals.
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