Vanessa Gamet, MLIS May 2015 GALE-CENGAGE & EBL E-TEXTBOOK PILOT IN AUSTRALIA

Mythical creatures 2

Background  Publishing a textbook Aims:  Keep libraries in the conversation while publishers transition from print to e  Try to replicate the textbook services libraries currently supply through short term loans  Try as much as possible to keep the costs reasonable  Gather information about performance of e-textbooks in libraries –test student behaviours –assess the effect on sell through rates for sales of textbooks to individual students

EBL platform Pilot commenced Monday 2 June, 2014 ANZ Libraries exclusively 7 core Australian textbooks exclusive to EBL, never before e E-textbook only, no additional resources, assessment etc. Model: 3-user; 3 x list price per unit Total cost ~ £1, only Pilot details

Acquisition Summary –16 libraries out of 42 participants purchased all 7 titles outright –238 copies owned out of potential 294 copies (but some had up to 9 copies) –29 copies purchased through automated turnaway handling setting

Usage Summary –23,023 usage sessions (average 96.7) –49 demand driven usage sessions –12 instances of titles owned but not used at all out of a total 238 copies owned (5% of titles were not used)..

Turnaway summary –There were 37 copies that experienced turnaways (orange coloured cells) –There were 29 occasions of additional copies purchased through automated turnaway handling setting (mauve coloured cells)

Devices PC Windows:NT = 178 Macintosh = 106 iPad = 9 Android = 4 iPhone = 1

Mobile Access to over 100 devices

QUT Pilot Usage  QUT purchased 1 copy of all 7 titles  QUT have bought an additional copy for 2 of the 7 titles  Total spend: £1,862.53/381 = £4.09 average cost per use (£18.13 Sem. 1 only print)

QUT Pilot Usage Loans = 48; Browse = 250 Loan Length –3 x 14 day –17 x 7 day –28 x 1 day Pages read = 11,726 / 298 uses (av ) Downloads = 36 / 9 copies (12% of uses) Pages printed = 203 (22.5 per copy) Pages copied = 32 (3.5 per copy)

Conclusions –Etexts have high average use –Few titles not used –Students don’t read, print or download the whole etext –Low turnaways = low user frustration –Etexts good for students –Etexts good value for libraries –Etexts good value for Cengage

Next steps…  Its success has led to expanded number of titles offered Extended with second batch of 20 titles 30 Jan 2015