The Parliamentary Library’s e-book experience: from finding the perfect model to measuring its success
Liz Luchetti
Assistant Secretary, Information Access Branch, Parliamentary Library
Abstract
During Financial Year 2011/2012, the Parliamentary Library investigated, procured and implemented a range of suitable e-books for our Library clients. This was an essential part of a bigger initiative to increase the proportion of material available in digital form so clients can have easy access to material wherever they are located.
After initial market research, the e-book project team compiled a list of e-book vendors and set about investigating each product, considering the number of titles available, search functionality, price, access options, performance history of each vendor, business models available and workflow issues.
Based on a detailed evaluation, several e-book products were selected and implemented.
This paper will discuss in detail the evaluation process used to determine which products would best suit the Parliamentary Library’s requirements, the implementation of the selected e-book services and the use of our e-book collections over the past 2 years.
Introduction
During Financial Year 2011/2012, the Collection Management section was tasked with investigating and procuring a range of suitable e-books for the Parliamentary Library. The aim to increase the collection of e-books is documented in the Australian Parliamentary Library Business plan 2010-13. This is an essential part of a bigger initiative to increase the proportion of material available in digital form so clients can have easy access to material wherever they are located.
Prior to the commencement of the project, 30 per cent of the Parliamentary Library’s collection was available in digital form. At the beginning of the e-book project, the Parliamentary Library had a small collection of e-books that had been obtained as part of subscription packages. For example, 1175 e-books were part of the OECD iLibrary to which the Library subscribed. These e-books were accessible full text via Summon, a web-scale discovery service from Serials Solutions, as the Parliamentary Library subscribes to the
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Serials Solutions 360 link for e-books as well as e-journals. Additionally, approximately 20,000 e-books had been captured to the Electronic Resource Repository (ERR) and catalogued on the Integrated Library System (ILS).
In July 2010, the Parliamentary Library purchased a Kindle Reader; since then it has been borrowed twenty one times. The Library has 18 titles on the Kindle - 4 purchased monographs and 14 free e-books. Every title on the Kindle and the Kindle-reader itself has a bibliographic record on the ILS.
As documented in the Parliamentary Library Digital Collection Policy1, the Library prefers to collect digital format material because online digital content:
is available to clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any location (including on mobile/handheld devices); may be accessed simultaneously by multiple users, which is not possible with hard copy; may be disseminated easily and quickly; is generally more up-to-date; is generally available before the hard copy version; can be reused by clients easily, for example it may be text searchable and "copy and pasted" into other applications; requires minimal staff handling, for example issues of journals do not need to be accessioned; and does not require shelving space.
E-book business models In 2011, there were many different business models for libraries to obtain e-book content. The Parliamentary Library reviewed each business model to ascertain which model would best suit our needs.
Title by title or by the bundle Libraries have the choice of selecting titles ‘one-by-one’ or purchasing an e-book package (i.e. subject or genre collections).
Subscription versus perpetuity Subscription packages allow libraries to buy access to a large number of e-books for a set period of time. Subscription packages usually consist of backlist titles that publishers make available to aggregators, knowing the print book sales have already run their course. The included content is selected by publishers or vendors, and libraries have no opportunity to shape the title lists.
Libraries can also choose to acquire e-books with the right to ‘perpetual access’. This model is more aligned with traditional print collection practices in which libraries are building collections for future as well as current use. The cost for this type of e-book is typically higher than the print equivalent. On top of the e-book price, most vendors charge libraries an annual platform maintenance fee which is required for ongoing hosting of the e-books purchased.
1 Governance Paper No. 5.3.1 - Parliamentary Library Digital Collection, p. 13, December 2011.
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Pay-per-view Some aggregators and publishers also offer content on a pay-per-view or short-term rental basis. This can be a cost-effective way of providing access to e-book content.
Patron driven acquisitions Patron-driven (also known as demand-driven) models allow libraries to load e-book records into their catalogue without committing to a purchase. Libraries can choose to manually or automatically purchase titles that have been viewed by library clients. Alternatively, there is the option not to purchase any title, but to pay a loan fee each time the e-book is utilised. Demand-driven acquisition significantly increases the amount of locally discoverable content and facilitates access to content at the point of need. In addition, libraries ultimately only purchase e-books when there is known demand based on patron activity.
After reviewing the available business models, the project team favoured patron driven acquisitions and individual title selection rather than the ‘just in case’ bulk purchasing models. We also wanted to purchase the e-books in perpetuity and have the ability to access them via mobile devices.
Evaluation As part of this project, ten e-book vendors and their products were investigated. The products were:
EBL NetLibrary Ebrary MyiLibrary OverDrive University Presses Books 24X7 Springer Brill Taylor & Francis
Table 1: E-book features
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During the course of the investigation, four products were identified as providing the best content and access options for the Parliamentary Library and were evaluated further. OverDrive, NetLibrary, MyiLibrary and EBL all provided a wide range of subject relevant e- books with agreeable access terms and workable business models. Further, the e-books from these vendors were all available for download to mobile devices. These four products were evaluated based on title availability, search functionality, pricing, performance history of each prospective vendor, access options, how each product could be integrated into our current workflows, and the product’s e-book business model.
Title availability During August and September 2011, a random sample of 50 titles ordered in hardcopy by Acquisitions staff were checked against the preferred suppliers. The titles searched by staff were all published in 2011 and a large portion were published in Australia.
Search functionality All four vendors allowed us to access their sites on a trial basis. We wanted a product that our clients would find easy to search and that would allow for advanced searching.
Pricing It was difficult to evaluate on the individual cost of an e-book, as each vendor offered different access/pricing models. Some vendors had platform fees, some allowed concurrent access, and others were strictly one copy one user.
Performance history All four products had kept up-to-date with technological developments and client requirements. For example, several years ago the vendors did not offer access via mobile devices, whereas now all four did. All vendors were actively seeking more Australian publishers to join their service, which will significantly increase the percentage of titles of interest to the Parliamentary Library.
Access options The project team favoured multiple-user access models, which ensures all clients can access the title when they want. EBL, NetLibrary and MyiLibrary all accommodated this access. OverDrive only allows an e-book to be loaned by one user at a time; however multiple copies of the book can be purchased if demand required.
The project team felt it was extremely important to implement a model that allowed downloading to mobile devices. All four vendors allowed access via a range of devices and readers. NetLibrary and MyiLibrary allowed IP authentication; whereas EBL and OverDrive require logons to access titles.
Collection Management workflows NetLibrary, MyiLibrary and EBL titles were available in Summon, which would allow the Parliamentary Library to easily integrate the e-books into current library processes. All vendors supplied downloadable MARC records with purchased e-books, though EBL’s records were rumoured to be of poor quality. When a request to purchase was received from a library client, Acquisitions staff would scan the selected e-book vendor’s catalogue to determine if the title was available in electronic format, and if so purchase (unless the client specifically stated a hardcopy was required). James Bennett lists EBL titles on its catalogue so searching time would not be increased.
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E-book business models EBL’s demand driven acquisition module was very impressive and the project team immediately saw how, combined with Summon, it could open up a huge opportunity for the Parliamentary Library. Rather than load all 200,000 MARC records into our catalogue as is traditionally done with this model, the Parliamentary Library could ‘subscribe’ to the titles in Summon, thereby providing a discovery point without having to manage the records in our ILS. After the e-book had been viewed, we would be billed for that title and own access to it in perpetuity. At this point we could load the free bibliographic record into our catalogue and upgrade the record to meet our standards.
The Collection Management section would work with EBL to determine the limits for this program. Limits to the program could include the amount of money we devote to the program, whether we purchase the first time an e-book is viewed or go with non-mediated short-term loans for the first (or second) use, and the most an e-book can cost. From a client's perspective, they would not be able to tell that the content they are accessing was not owned by the Parliamentary Library.
The proven success of OverDrive in other government libraries and their reputed strong customer service put OverDrive among the top contenders in the e-book market. The title selection was better than the project team initially expected, and was continually improving to suit non-public libraries. The project team believed OverDrive would be widely used by everyone with Parliamentary Computer Network (PCN) access as there was an extensive range of travel guides (it is the only vendor to sell Lonely Planet guidebooks!), health and well-being, management and IT titles. The project team selected 126 titles from the OverDrive catalogue to determine the cost of putting together an ‘opening day’ collection of relevant titles. The cost was $3,165.00. The range of more generalist titles on the OverDrive catalogue would allow the Library to supply titles on broader departmental initiatives and training.
It is worth noting that none of the products investigated required the Library to have an annual minimum spend.
Recommendations At the conclusion of the 2011 project the following four recommendations were developed. They were considered fundamental to increasing the number of e-books in the Parliamentary Library:
Recommendation 1 – The Parliamentary Library implements the EBL demand-driven acquisition model as a two-year trial. Collection Management staff will work with EBL to determine the limits for this model and adjust as necessary to ensure we do not exceed our maximum spend.
Recommendation 2 – The Parliamentary Library commences a two-year trial of OverDrive. Further, an ‘opening day’ OverDrive collection is purchased and promoted to everybody with PCN access.
Recommendation 3 – Where a title is available in hardcopy and electronic format, the Collection Management section will opt to procure the e-book, unless a justification has been provided by the requesting client, as electronic formats are generally more widely accessible to a larger group of people than their hardcopy equivalents.
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Recommendation 4 – The Collection Management section will conduct a post implementation review at the conclusion of the two-year trial.
Implementation The Collection Management section commenced implementing OverDrive in January 2012. From the start, the OverDrive team were efficient, helpful and extremely knowledgeable. We provided input into the development of our OverDrive client portal and the OverDrive team created it. We were able to customise the site to allow our logo, our own tip sheets and contact details to be added. We were also able to determine sub-categories under which to display our titles. We were extremely pleased with the outcome; the website looked both professional and inviting.
Our IT section created an application that would allow Adobe Digital Editions to be downloaded safely on the PCN and created a shortcut link in the browser. We developed a good system to quickly assign logon and password details; the process of registering the borrowers with OverDrive was easy and immediate. OverDrive provided promotional materials which were professional and specific to our Library. They also provided training materials. We had the option to customise our collection development activities but opted to search the catalogue ourselves, rather than be sent recommended titles or blanket orders. We opted to download bibliographic records at a cost of $1.50 per record, but after a few months decided to catalogue the titles ourselves, as we had records in our catalogue that we could easily clone.
After going live with OverDrive, we organised training for our clients. The sessions were well attended and our clients were enthusiastic about the new service. We gave all attendees tip sheets that carefully explained the process for first time use. We also provided one-on-one sessions with clients as some were confused about the process of authorising Adobe Digital Editions when used for the first time.
The Collection Management section purchased new e-books each week to ensure the collection was fresh and relevant. All titles purchased were for single use, except for the Lonely Planet titles which we procured via an annual subscription which would allow multiple concurrent access and annual updates to the collection.
In November 2012 we went live with EBL. The implementation was very quick and seamless. We gave clients the same logon and password details they used for OverDrive. Unfortunately we had to abandon our plan to ‘subscribe’ to the entire catalogue of EBL titles in Summon as we were unable to exclude out of scope subject areas, fiction or foreign language materials.
The rest of the implementation was straightforward; we added our logo to our customised EBL portal and then purchased a handful of titles to get started. Again we organised training sessions and tip sheets and carefully explained the patron driven acquisition model. In the early days we had a few requests for out-of-scope titles but generally our clients were requesting relevant titles that added depth and breadth to our collection. We opted not to download bibliographic records, as our experience with OverDrive demonstrated it was quicker and less problematic to catalogue the purchased titles in-house.
Post implementation review There has been an enormous amount of activity in the past several years as the number of e-book vendors increases. In addition to the long-standing vendors, there are many
Page | 6 newcomers. While all models for content and licensing are still evolving, they are now meeting the needs of librarians and clients better than ever. Vendors are making it easier for librarians to integrate e-books into their regular selection and acquisition workflow. This gives librarians the ability to see quickly when both e-book and print book versions are available, helping ensure that any duplication is intentional.
Over the last month, the Parliamentary Library has started to investigate the new e-book platforms on the market. So far, these new products have a strong focus on fiction and the school or public library sector, so they do not meet our needs. The products we initially investigated but found unsuitable due to lack of Australian content or inability to use on mobile devices have now improved. Over the next few months we will continue to investigate both new products and the products we dismissed in 2011, to ascertain if they will add value to the Parliamentary Library’s collection.
A major focus of our post implementation review is to determine if the products we procured are used by our clients and are still meeting our needs. The next section of this paper outlines usage, issues and changes to the e-book vendors’ services since implementation.
The Parliamentary Library went live with OverDrive in March 2012. Since that date, usage of the e-book collection has been high. Clients have accessed the titles via desktop, laptop and mobile devices. Access via mobile devices equates to 31 per cent of all OverDrive lending, which confirms the assumptions we made in 2011 that access via mobile devices would be popular with our clients, and therefore mandatory in any product procured.
Figure 2: OverDrive loans by device
OverDrive loans by device
31% Standard (Desktop, Laptop etc) Mobile (iPad etc) 69%
Our OverDrive collection contains 552 one copy/one user titles and 75 simultaneous use subscriptions (Lonely Planet titles). 11 Parliamentary Library titles have also been added to the collection and we intend to add many more. Of the 370 registered borrowers, 187 actively used OverDrive between March 2012 and August 2013.
Since March 2012, OverDrive has upgraded both the client portal and Content Reserve (the librarians’ website where OverDrive titles are purchased, patrons managed and reports run). The enhancements have improved search performance and ease of use. Clients can now sync bookmarks and reading progress across multiple devices, using a free, opt-in registration service called OverDrive One. Other enhancements include:
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multiple carts – clients can create numerous active shopping carts which allows for improved organisation of digital content during the selection process; saved searches – frequent queries can be saved, named, and pinned to the homepage of Content Reserve so clients can run the same search with one step and save time; simplified reports – the number of reports has been reduced, and data from some reports has either been consolidated or moved to a logical location elsewhere in Content Reserve. The layout of data within each report has been reconfigured for easy viewing and customisation.
Access to e-books via Kindle is still not available through OverDrive and this is something frequently requested by our clients.
EBL was launched by the Parliamentary Library in November 2012. Since that time it has also been heavily used. The majority of the titles in the EBL collection have been purchased due to a request from a client (patron driven model). The process is very quick. If a client requests a title we get an immediate alert and can either approve or reject the request. If approved, the client is emailed to inform them that the title is now available. The whole process only takes minutes. If the request is rejected, the client is emailed and an explanation given.
Since implementation, an additional 68,695 e-books have been added to the extensive EBL catalogue. The service now has over 520 publishers and in May 2013, EBL joined Proquest and is currently being integrated with ebrary.
The Parliamentary Library’s trial of OverDrive and EBL has been successful. We have compared borrowing figures of e-books and hardcopy monographs for the 2012-2013 financial year period. When taking into account the collection size of the e-book collection and the hardcopy monograph collection, it is apparent that the e-book collection is used more heavily than the hardcopy.
However, providing library clients with access to a comprehensive collection of e-books isn’t seamless. Clients require logons, which isn’t ideal. Adobe Digital Editions requires authorisation on first use and again after any internal system upgrades. Since November 2012, our own IT department has made changes to the PCN which unintentionally caused problems with Adobe Digital Editions. Software problems have been our major obstacle with our e-book trial. Another issue has been keeping our tip sheets up-to-date, as both external and internal changes can cause our procedure to become outdated.
There have also been issues with publishers inflicting ‘metered access’ to their e-book titles; for example HarperCollins only allows 26 loans of an e-book title before it is removed from the system. This will become an increasing problem if more publishers follow suit.
Conclusion Our clients have adapted to e-books; most request electronic format when placing a request. E-book usage is increasing so it has been encouraging to know we were proactive, rather than reactive with our implementation. We have been extremely happy with the service delivered by our e-book vendors, and have been impressed by their commitment to keep their content relevant and up-to-date. By the end of August 2013, 35 per cent of the Parliamentary Library’s collection is now available to clients in digital form. We are confident this percentage will continue to increase as our clients continue to favour electronic access and the amount of titles available in electronic format increases.
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