Ebooks: Finding a Way to Share 44th Annual CO Interlibrary Loan Conference Joan Lamborn Associate Dean of University Libraries University of Northern Colorado George Machovec Executive Director Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries April 18, 2013

Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries Who are we? – Non-profit library consortium (501c3) founded in 1974 – 13 member libraries in Colorado & Wyoming (12 academic and one public) – Our initiatives Shared licensing ($12m/year) Prospector union catalog - 40 libraries Gold Rush (ERM, A-Z, Linker) – 60 libraries Alliance Digital Repository Service (Fedora/Islandora)

Long History of Resource Sharing Launched CARL ILS and UnCover in the 1980s – Sold in mid-1990s Launched the Prospector union catalog (INN- Reach) in the late 1990s – 41 libraries (half academic/half public) – 12 million unique titles/30 million items – 600,000 lends per year

What is a Book? A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side (Wikipedia)inkpaperparchment – A container for information – Is it defined by a publisher? – Is it defined by size or number of pages – Is it defined by its format (paper, digital, analog) – How is it different from reports, serials, documents….

What is an ebook? A book produced in electronic or digital format is known as an ebook (Wikipedia) – How do you spell its shorthand version – ebook, eBook, Ebook, e-book? – Is it defined differently if read on a computer screen, ebook reader, listened to, etc. – Is it an ebook if it contains embedded audio or video? What if it’s only audio or video? – Definitions are getting muddled!

More Confusion Our online catalogs and discovery systems mask from the reader what our digital content is – Most don’t carefully read the MARC record – Our format icons (if used) are not universal – Reports, large monographs, pamphlets and other e-content all look essentially the same in our portals

Frustration for the End-User Why can’t I access an ebook? Who controls my access – The library? – The publisher? – Some intermediate organization? I can sometimes get into ebooks and sometimes I can’t. Why? I go to Amazon, Apple or Google Books and I can always get to a book ($) but there often are not available copies of ebooks to borrow at my library (particularly with popular titles at public libraries). Why? If another library owns an ebook why can’t you lend it to me or give me temporary access like printed books (ILL)?

Books and Ebooks/Copyright Intellectual content is controlled by copyright law – In the printed world long standing laws (e.g. fair use) have defined proper use which, among other things, allows libraries to exist and do interlibrary loan – In the digital world, the distribution of content can be more tightly controlled by publishers and vendors and libraries sign contracts which limit our use – these limits are often much more restrictive than traditional fair use provisions

Public Domain In U.S. copyright law anything published before 1923 is in the public domain – 1923 is currently frozen (Mickey Mouse) In the U.S. anything published by federal, state and local governments is in the public domain There are many “orphan” works where the publisher and/or author cannot be easily found and materials are in limbo

Our Contention Resource Sharing (ILL) is an important element of library service Not every library can purchase everything, no matter how large If sharing of library resources is not permitted then the publishers have won! – Particularly devastating for smaller academic and public libraries – It hurts everyone

No Single Solution Since no national standards or policy exist for eBook resource sharing, be creative – Ask for resource sharing contract provisions with publishers – Look for creative solutions – Can short term loans be a proxy for ILL? – Can resource sharing in a limited domain solve some problems? Some Alliance approaches – Springer eBooks – Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) – Consortial Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA)

Lending of Springer eBooks Eleven libraries license the Springer ebook package now with backfiles to 2005 (>50,000 titles) The titles are lent to the non-subscribing libraries in the Prospector system About 100 titles are lent per month PDFs are sent to patron’s owning library with no-DRM or other restrictions (allowed in contract)

Lending of Springer eBooks Libraries load OCLC MARC records into local OPAC Records automatically flow to Prospector union catalog URLs are available for subscribing libraries Selected libraries have agreed to be fulfillment libraries for eBooks The system load balances between these libraries

Lending Springer eBooks Library receives request and rather than getting a print version from shelves, they login to Springer, download eBook and send Item sent to borrowing library (not directly to patron) and they send the link to their patron for pickup on the Web – We use yousendit.com because files are too big to be ed Prospector fulfillment stats are logged

Oxford Scholarship Online OSO titles licensed by 9 academic Alliance libraries Contract allows any public library or community college in Colorado or Wyoming to have free access riding on the coat tails of Alliance contract – This was their counter to ILL provisions – Started September 2012

Douglas County eBook Project Locally loading content from on Adobe Content Server (ACS) – Currently about >8,000 titles. Still missing big publishers – Gives library local control with rights similar to print for sharing and accessing (one book, one reader) – Making available through their VuFind discovery interface Working with Marmot Library Network (who also uses VuFind) This model is being mimicked in other public libraries around the United States

Colorado Alliance DDA Pilot Demand Driven Acquisitions Pilot – 9 academic libraries – Working through YBP with ebrary and EBL – Publishers selected for each aggregator – 6 Short Term Loans (STLs) before purchase at % of retail cost of book – When purchase is triggered, 2.5 times multiplier of cost of book will be paid to allow all 9 libraries to have perpetual access

Colorado Alliance DDA Pilot Free previews of books (5 minutes for EBL and 10 minutes for ebrary) Pilot launched in May 2012 (with 2012 and later imprints). Includes only books that retail for less than $250. Currently about 3,000 eBooks in the pilot but more being added each week No ebook lending to non-pilot participants but would like to address this issue in the future – Could STLs be used to provide “lending” in Prospector – How does the money flow?

Preliminary Alliance Use Data June 2012 – March 31, 2013 * It doesn’t matter who triggers a purchase. Titles are owned by all in the group. InstitutionShort Term LoansAuto-Purchase*Owned Loans Auraria Colorado College53118 CSU/Fort Collins DU Colorado Mesa U8729 Regis UCCS55268 UNC University of Wyo TOTALS

Alliance DDA Monthly Expenditures

Advice Be sure to contribute your MARC records for eBooks to local catalogs, discovery systems, union catalogs – Many of your patrons go directly to these different interfaces (you can’t predict) – All authenticated resources have the same protection as in your local catalog – If you don’t contribute all of your records, when your patrons search these interfaces they won’t be seeing everything you own

Advice When you contract for eBooks think about resource sharing – In the move from print to digital if we sign away all of our rights, the publishers have won – Try to get ILL rights – Let’s look out for each other – No one solution will fix everything, we’ll need to fight this battle one contract at a time

One Library’s Perspective on the Alliance DDA Project University of Northern Colorado Joan Lamborn Associate Dean of University Libraries

University of Northern Colorado Founded in 1889 as the State Normal School for training teachers Became the University of Northern Colorado in 1970 Recognized programs: Teacher preparation, business, music and theatre arts, nursing Fall 2012 enrollment: 12,497 Undergraduates: 10,102 Graduate students: 2,395

Project Coordination Alliance Shared Collection Development Committee Representatives from the Alliance libraries responsible for collection development Responsible for planning and assessment of the project Subcommittee of catalogers from participating institutions Established practices for modification of discovery records and cataloging of purchased titles Established an list for notification of discovery record availability and for group communication

Impact on UNC Operations Selection Acquisitions Cataloging ILL

Selection Selectors are accustomed to making decisions for the collection If a title is part of the project, it is not known upfront if the title will be purchased The platform decision has already been made as a result of the project It is not always clear whether a title will be available through the project

Acquisitions Orders for print and e titles may duplicate titles available on the project Duplicates are investigated to determine if the duplication a result of the project If an order for print duplicates a DDA title, the print title is ordered If an order for e duplicates a DDA title, the e order is held Exception: if the title is needed for a course

Acquisitions Print and e duplicates are tracked on a spreadsheet Print title purchases may shed light on use of print vs. e E duplicates may be purchased at the end of the project

Acquisitions Approval books may also duplicate project titles The selector is notified for a decision whether to keep or return the print approval copy

Cataloging Processing of discovery records Deletion of discovery records Cataloging of purchased titles

Cataloging Discovery records Loaded into the local catalog Edited according to practices agreed upon by the participating libraries Edited based on local needs as well

Cataloging Deletion of discovery records Monthly lists of deletions are sent to the established list Each library removes the records from the local catalog Once deleted by all of the local libraries, removal occurs in Prospector

Cataloging Cataloging of purchased titles The decision was made to fully catalog purchased titles rather than load point-of-invoice records Titles are cataloged by Colorado State University MARC records are sent to other libraries Discovery records are overlaid Libraries send holdings to OCLC

Interlibrary Loan No impact on ILL workflow Access replaces borrowing and lending of project titles Are short term loans a way to handle ILL for ebooks?

UNC’s Experience The project is an adjustment for selectors Selectors have different preferences about ebooks Duplication is the most difficult issue A project-wide policy about duplication at the beginning of the project would have been helpful The impact on cataloging is not significant Communication among everyone involved is critical

Participation in the Project

UNC Usage by Subject Category (EBL)

UNC Usage by Subject Category (ebrary)

Next Step - Assessment of the Project Does demand-driven acquisitions make sense at the consortial level? If so, what is an appropriate pricing model?

Assessment of the Project Examples of specific questions to be investigated: How does usage by institution compare to $ contributed? How does usage by institution compare to FTE? What are the percentages of use and cost by institution? To what extent to institutional patterns differ by subject? By publisher?

Options Going Forward Continue Change the metric for funding Expand?