1. SLAIS E-Publishing Summer School 18-29 June 2007 The demand for e-books
Briefing Event

2. The National E-Books Observatory Project & the UK academic vision for e-books
Lorraine Estelle
Good Morning.
I have been invited here today to talk about the UK academic vision for e-books and the steps that are required to realise that vision.
So what gives me the right to talk about such a Vision? Well, firstly I am a collections manager at JISC Collections and have been working within JISC for coming on five years. I am in contact with publishers and librarians on a daily basis discussing issues, discovering needs and negotiating licence agreements.
I am a member of the JISC e-books working group that represents the all UK FE and HE. The group guides JISC Collections in collection building strategies and actively discusses challenges in e-books standards, content and technologies. This group is responsible for the creation of the academic vision.
I am the project manager for the JISC National e-books observatory project that aims to stimulate the core reading list e-book market, evaluate how users actually use e-books, assess impacts on print sales and use the findings to develop appropriate business and licensing models.
And last, but not least, I am student. I am doing a distance learning masters in electronic publishing and I am about to submit a research proposal looking specifically at the promotion of e-textbooks and the interaction between publishers and librarians in this process.
I wanted to mention these roles as they each provide me with a different perspective on e-books which is extremely useful when running a national project and understanding the needs of each stakeholder.
CEO
JISC Collections
Briefing Event

3. The Vision for e-books in UK education
The UK education community will have access to quality e-book content that is of high relevance to teaching, learning and research across the broadest range of subject areas. Flexible business and licensing models will support a diversity of needs, allowing users to do what they want when they want and how they want for education purposes. All e-books will be easily discoverable and consistent standards will allow all content to be fully integrated into library, learning and research environments.
E-Books Working Group 2007
Slide 3. The UK Academic Vision and the role of JISC Collections
So what is the Vision?
The UK education community will have access to quality e-book content that is of high relevance to teaching, learning and research across the broadest range of subject areas. Flexible business and licensing models will support a diversity of needs, allowing users to do what they want when they want and how they want. All e-books will be easily discoverable and consistent standards will allow all content to be fully integrated into library, learning and research environments.
I am now going to take you through the core elements of the vision. I have presented it as questions from librarians and then the steps that JISC Collections and JISC aim to take to realise the vision.
Briefing Event

4. A new study Ignorance in the HE sector of what e-books are available
A feasibility study on the acquisition of e-books by HE libraries and the role of JISC
Ignorance in the HE sector of what e-books are available
Low awareness within HEIs of the value and relevance of e-books
Poor understanding by library staff and publishers of each others needs
Complexity of access routes to aggregators or publishers platforms
Too few e-books are available
Available e-books are not up to date or relevant to UK users
Pricing models are not appropriate
Publishers are not making the right textbooks electronically available on the right terms
A feasibility study on the acquisition of e-books by HE libraries and the role of JISC
The study looked at the acquisition of TEXTBOOKS by HE libraries and explored what the role of the JISC might be in a market that has traditionally sold direct to the user. This study is backbone of the e-books vision and found that although 89 of the 92 survey respondents said there were either ‘very eager’ of ‘fairly eager’ to develop core reading list e-book collections, that demand is not evident enough for publishers and aggregators to justify a serious investment and risk loosing print sales revenue.
The study highlighted 8 key issues:
1. Ignorance in the HE sector of what e-books are available
2. Low awareness within HEIs of the value and relevance of e-books
3. Poor understanding by library staff and publishers of each others needs
4. Complexity of access routes to aggregators or publishers platforms
5. Too few e-books are available
6. Available e-books are not up to date or relevant to UK users
7. Pricing models are not appropriate
8. Publishers are not making the right textbooks electronically available on the right terms
Taking the findings of the feasibility study into account, the e-books working group devised a vision firmly grounded on the needs of the academic community but one that also took into account the e-book market place and the transitional processes that are required to meet the vision.
Briefing Event

5. Why have libraries not bought more e-books?
E-book pricing models are not satisfactory (64%)
There is too little choice of e-book titles (62%)
E-book access models are not satisfactory (53%)
We are waiting for the market to settle down (33%)
We are waiting for JISC to offer better e-book deals (30%)
E-books are too expensive (28%)
I do not know what is available (18%)
There is no demand for e-books here (13%)
Affiliated/ external users are not allowed access (11%)
The technology is too complicated (8%)
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6. How many e-books do libraries subscribe to or own
How many e-books do libraries subscribe to or own? [Ebrary Survey, June respondents from 67 countries]
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7. Is there any pressure on you to develop e-book collections in your library?
Yes 68% No 32%
If there is pressure where is that coming from?
Librarians (54%)
Students (38%)
Teachers (27%)
Management (23%)
Researchers (9%)
Briefing Event

8. Roles for JISC in e-books acquisition
Seeking to get the best buys for the sector – national VFM role (87%)
Investigating innovative formats or purchasing models that are being offered (66%)
Buying resources that are essential in niche areas for research and teaching where the users would not be able to afford it without help (40%)
Briefing Event

9. E-books: What do librarians want?
‘Reading list’ materials, principally textbooks
Current titles
Wider choice of titles relevant to the UK academic community
Flexibility in choosing between subscribing or outright purchase
Sensible charging bands or prices regime
Multiple and concurrent access for users
Easy access to the host server for Shibboleth/ ATHENS users
A more systematic way of discovering what e-books are available
Briefing Event

10. The need for a new vision
TEXTBOOKS
TEXTBOOKS
Slide 2
So why the need for a new vision?
In 2001 the e-books working group was talking about TEXTBOOKS, in 2003 the e-books mapping exercise said that the primary purchasing area in the future would be TEXTBOOKS and the e-books in FE and HE strategy said that TEXTBOOKS were essential for the future. In 2004 the group was still talking about TEXTBOOKS (you can check the minutes). In 2005 the group held a number of meetings with publishers to talk about TEXTBOOKS to encourage them to push forward with making TEXTBOOKS available and in 2006 the group finally tired of talking about TEXTBOOKS and the uncertainty about what business models and licensing models to apply and commissioned a feasibility study to inform the creation of a new vision.
Briefing Event

11. National E-books Observatory Project: Aims
To licence a collection of online core reading list e-books that are highly relevant to UK HE taught course students in four discipline areas. The core reading e-books will be free at the point of use for a period of two years
To evaluate the use of the materials through deep log analysis and the impact of the ‘free at the point of use’ materials upon publisher, aggregator & library processes
To transfer knowledge acquired in the project to all stakeholders to help stimulate an e-books market that has appropriate business & licensing models
Briefing Event

12. Step 1
ITT for publishers & aggregators inviting submission of core reading materials
£600,000 available (multiple vendors)
Four discipline areas:
Business and Management studies
Engineering
Medicine (not mental health or nursing)
Media studies
Briefing Event

13. Step 1 continued
Materials must be for HE taught course students; they must be UK focused where relevant; & they must be made available on the platforms used by HE institutions
Materials will be evaluated by the education community
A priority list will be created against relevance, value for money & print sales to verify demand
JISC Collections will carry out negotiation & licensing and ensure delivery
Briefing Event

14. Step 2
ITT to undertake a 12 month deep log analysis (using raw logs of user transactions) to assess the impacts & the usage of the core reading materials
The user data generates questions for follow up web-based questionnaires
Jointly the 2 methodologies will provide an understanding of the e-book behaviours of staff & students and will inform business models for e-books & strategies for embedding e-books
Data will be shared with the project publishers
Briefing Event

15. Publishers going forward for community consultation
Medicine
Wolter Kluwer
Wiley Blackwell
Engineering
Thomas Telford
CUP
Elsevier
Media
Palgrave Macmillan
Taylor & Francis
Business
Thomson Learning
John Wiley
CUP
Taylor & Francis
Palgrave Macmillan
Elsevier
Pearson
Briefing Event

16. Issues raised by the core readings ITT: pricing
A. Cost per title £5,000 - £20,000
B. Cost per title £4,962 - £10,220
C. Cost per title £24,200 - £184,289
D. Cost per title £9,573 - £167,135
F. Cost per title 16x hardback cover price
E. £300,000 for 30 books (and whole collection must be purchased)
Briefing Event

17. Issues raised by the ITT: platforms
Lis-sconul survey March 2007 – top 5 e-book platforms
1. NetLibrary
2. Safari
3. Dawsons EBL
4. MyiLibrary & Ebrary
Bids lack platform flexibility
Few bidders have offered multiple platforms
We may end up with books on several different platforms which is far from optimal
Briefing Event

18. Issues raised by the ITT: MARC records
The ITT for core reading materials asked all publishers to supply MARC records for the books offered
The Steering Group felt this was important for a number of reasons – not least the time scale of the project for libraries and the improved access through OPACs
Not all vendors have complied with this element of the ITT
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19. What drives eBooks usage? [Ebrary survey]
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20. How do patrons find eBooks? [Ebrary survey]
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21. Advantages and benefits
Provide an in-depth understanding of how e-books that support UK higher education taught course students are actually used in teaching and learning
Enable publishers, libraries and aggregators to assess the demand for core reading list e-books
Enable all parties to measure the effect of ‘free at the point’ of use e-books on the buying behaviours of students.
Enable libraries to measure the benefits and potential costs of providing core reading list e-books to students
Inform the creation of appropriate business and licensing models
Inform the promotion of e-books within an institution
Raise awareness generally of e-books throughout the academic community
Stimulate the e-books market in a managed environment
The project will
Provide an in-depth understanding of how e-books that support UK higher education taught course students are actually used in teaching and learning
Enable publishers, libraries and aggregators to assess the demand for core reading list e-books
Enable all parties to measure the effect of ‘free at the point’ of use e-books on the buying behaviours of students.
Enable libraries to measure the benefits and potential costs of providing core reading list e-books to students
Inform the creation of appropriate business and licensing models
Inform the promotion of e-books within an institution
Raise awareness generally of e-books throughout the academic community
And last but not least, it will stimulate the e-books market in order to resolve the catch 22 situation.
Briefing Event

22. Take part in the consultation
Take part in the consultation
Thank you
Thank you for listening. The project website is and there are links there to all the reports mentioned and the e-book vision.
Briefing Event