Friday, March 4, 2016

Purchase of eBooks in School Libraries

In regards to the HarperCollins Open Letter to Librarians article, I disagree with establishing an eBook checkout limit of 26 circulations per purchase; although, I understand the fear of publishers that the unlimited borrowing of books will hurt their sales. Restrictions on eBook checkouts are somewhat inconsistent because emulating the equivalent price of a printed book is challenging (Cotler, n.d.).

First, our teacher-librarians have indicated eBooks that are offered with a 26 check-out limitation are relatively the same price of what other vendors offer with an unlimited single user check-out. This lack of consistency in pricing stems from the “first-sale doctrine” and procurement of eBooks. The only way for libraries to obtain eBooks is through the purchase of licenses (Colter, n.d.). EBook licenses are subject to what or how the publisher wants to license to the libraries. Publishers maintain control and flexibility in the pricing structure offered to libraries.

Second, our librarians are purchasing more nonfiction eBooks to support the type of text found on the STAAR test, and librarians prefer the simultaneous multiuser books when available for nonfiction books. Even though they are typically more expensive, for roughly the cost of two books, our librarians can offer access to the whole school at once, which makes it usable for class projects/reads should they choose to use them. To find the big five publishers and library lending terms click this link. The pdf document confirms that the publishers offer licenses and various lender terms beginning with 26 checkouts to an unlimited number of single-user-at-a-time checkouts.

Third, when I asked our librarians how they felt about eBooks, they mentioned they purchased them because they felt the need to offer them to our students. In other words, libraries should take advantage of any opportunities available to place reading materials into the hands of our students. However, they also felt that purchasing physical books was a better use of the library funds because students mostly requested the physical books over eBooks when reading for entertainment. Basically, they felt the pricing of a printed book along with the longer shelf life compared to many eBooks was a more efficient way to spend the district’s limited funds (Everton, 2010).  Teacher-librarians feel you can get many more circulations from a book than an eBook with a limit of 26 checkouts. Lanning and Turner (2010) found this explanation consistent in a recent survey which also indicated librarians felt printed books were a more popular choice because of the cost of electronic sources versus their print counterparts. 

However, the demand for eBooks has consistently risen and schools need to make more of them available to their patrons. One key function of the library is to make books available to the school community because this has a positive effect on the knowledge and education of people in the community. Providing eBooks has a greater ability to reach more people at great distances considering the exponential growth in mobile devices.
Hopefully legislation will find an equitable way to provide more eBooks to the schools and community in a consistent manner.

This article was recently released and is very interesting about free eBooks being offered to Title 1 schools. I wonder what implications this will have on the future purchasing of EBooks.    
        

Renee

References
  Cotler, A. (n.d.). Libraries in the Digital Age.
Everton, K. (2010). Are Libraries Dying? Ebooks and the Future of Libraries. The Book of MPub: New Perspectives on Technology and Publishing, 47.
Lanning, S., & Turner, R. (2010). Trends in print vs. electronic use in school libraries. The Reference Librarian, 51(3), 212-221.