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45 percent of ebrary customers diversify e-book acquisition models for the highest return on investment

Press Release: Proquest [June 4, 2012]

June 4, 2012 – Palo Alto, CA, USA – ebrary, a ProQuest business, today announced that 45% of its customers are diversifying acquisition models to provide their researchers with a breadth and depth of high-quality, relevant e-books. Many customers subscribe to Academic Complete as an affordable base collection with unlimited access and continued growth and expand the collection with other models including patron driven acquisition, perpetual archive, and short-term loans. Academic Complete is the industry's first and most scholarly subscription product with over 75,000 titles.

Diversification is a key component of ebrary's strategic approach to e-book acquisition based on three steps: Transition, Diversify, and Streamline. As libraries are transitioning from print to digital, and as more books are published digitally, diversifying models and streamlining ordering are becoming a necessity.

"While we have been investing more of our budget in e-books, there is no way that we could meet all of our students' needs by purchasing every title outright," said Rebecca Schroeder, Acquisitions Librarian, Brigham Young University. "By subscribing to Academic Complete, we can offer a vast base collection and leverage usage statistics to determine which titles to purchase. We have also streamlined our patron driven acquisition program, firm orders, and epreferred approval plan through YBP to more efficiently build our ebrary collection. This approach enables BYU to affordably get a wide selection of the right e-books into the hands of our students."

"We initiated our e-book acquisition strategy by purchasing individual titles through YBP but needed to offer a wider selection so we subscribed to Academic Complete," said

Lynda Fuller Clendenning, Head, Acquisitions Division, Indiana University, Bloomington Libraries. "We also are in the midst of an ebrary patron driven acquisition pilot through YBP where we are offering all of our profiled approval slips. With this three track approach we hope to learn about our users' uptake of e-books and how we might adjust our acquisition strategy to further build our collection."

According to Kevin Sayar, ebrary's President and General Manager, the success of its strategic e-book acquisition program will depend on several factors.

"To provide libraries with the greatest return on investment, we need to understand usage and continue to build complementary business models and technologies that deliver the greatest value," said Sayar. "This is not something that ebrary can accomplish alone. It needs to be a collaborative effort between libraries, publishers, book vendors, and other business units within the broader ProQuest organization. Together, we can empower researchers."

Learn More at ALA

To find out more about ebrary's new approach to strategic e-book acquisition, visit us at ALA, June 22-25, in Anaheim, CA (ProQuest booth #2000).

About ebrary

ebrary (www.ebrary.com) helps customers acquire e-books strategically through a three step approach: Transition, Diversify and Streamline. The company believes that by challenging the e-book status quo, organizations can effectively serve the diverse and growing needs of researchers and maximize their budgets. Founded in 1999, long before e-books were popular, ebrary is a ProQuest business located in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

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Publication Year:2012
Type of Material:Press Release
Language English
Issue:June 4, 2012
Publisher:Proquest
Company: Proquest
Subject: Product announcements
Record Number:16903
Last Update:2024-12-14 08:19:37
Date Created:2012-06-05 04:07:49
Views:76