Abstract
Access to a Community of Practice (CoP) is especially valuable when one is confronted by some development that contains novel ideas, fresh challenges and unexpected issues. The advent of e-books (as distinct from the more general e-resources) has brought much puzzlement, confusion and not a little excitement. We have become professionally accustomed to e-resources, such as databases and information-rich web sites, but e-books require a different approach and the development of new procedures. How necessary then to have access to the informed views of others who have experimented, tried various strategies and are ready to share their experiences. There are several CoPs, and many sources discussing e-books and the development of professional practice: the contributions collated by Richard Kaplan in this book provide a solid foundation for further, and more informed, discussions based on solid experience of what works and what is most effective.
The book is aimed at those managing libraries of all types; it focuses on collection management but the point is frequently made that many of the issues encountered have significant impacts on elements of strategic management. So, one may conclude that the adoption and subsequent management of e-books is of primary concern to all members of the senior management team, as well as those with a primary responsibility for collection management.
Following a preface, a foundation section, devoted to the phenomenon of e-books (‘E-books in context’), opens the book: Fern Cheek and Lynda Hartel provide a timeline and brief history of the development, highlighting such important steps as the establishment of Project Gutenberg by Michael Hart. This section evades discussion of the contested matter of who invented the e-book and discerning readers may prefer to supplement their account with that offered in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book#Timeline) which acknowledges and describes a surprisingly complex history. Cheek and Hartel also include a pre-figuring of what can be found in more detail in later chapters – a crisp analysis of the impact of the advent of e-books on readers and libraries.
Meg White’s analysis of the medium (‘E-book publishing – a view from the industry’) is challenging – at least, if our expectation is that it is only technology-push that is the driver of the transition. White explains that the publishing industry has been in transition since the 1980s, with the cost structure being a major contributor to exploring other channels of supplying ‘the book’. She emphasises the shift in balance from sales to the individual to sales to institutions and readily acknowledges the difficulty that some institutions have had, and will continue to have, in making decisions about the change. Of particular interest for public libraries is the launch of ‘parallel’ services, such as the Amazon Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. What impact such a service may have is still unclear – but it is evidently a development to watch.
Nadia Lalla concludes this section of the book with a view of the industry from the ‘institutional’ aspect (‘E-book publishing – the view from the library’). This concentrates on the many publishing models and quite effectively brings a sense of order to what has, increasingly, become a confusing and rather scary market place. One can quickly become appreciative of the reasons why many collection managers have pursued a tacit ‘wait and see’ strategy. However, with Lalla’s guidance, one should feel secure again: the pros and cons of each purchasing model are explained and balanced, so that the reader can assimilate best practice but also appreciate the trends that are emerging.
Section II is configured around an in-depth discussion of e-books and how their characteristics interact with the varying needs of library clientele. Rebecca Felkner commences with a discussion of the public library, including an analysis of the impact that acquisition of the e-format may have on working practice and policies. From her comments, it is clear that acceptability to staff – as well as to library users – is important; this means keeping the staff up to date on technological changes, a factor that is often forgotten or relegated to a short session during staff training. She provides a useful selection of sites on which developments are regularly discussed.
I had hoped that this chapter on public libraries would lead to a similar treatment for the academic and research library manager – but this is not the plan. The particular aspects of academic, school and similar institutions are dealt with through a set of case studies in Section III. Although these are useful, they reflect the origins of this book – the Medical Library Association – and they, thus, concentrate on practice in the United States. A contrasting analysis of the various library types and how they might be affected by e-books would have made this book more useful in an international market.
However, what is here is a set of chapters analysing the process of acquiring e-books, through selection (Joanne Doucette and Amy Lewontin), issues of licensing and budgeting (Becky Albitz and David Brennan), creating access points and metadata (Betsy Eggleston) and collection evaluation (Karen Grigg). Such is the level of detail offered, that it tends to offset the criticism advanced above and, provided readers are prepared to interpolate their own contexts, the advice and guidance offered are readily transferable between library types.
Doucette and Lewontin offer a clear account of the variety of e-book formats – a topic that seems to attract acronyms and initialisms – and of e-book platforms. Similar clarity is evident in the two chapters on licensing and budgeting by Albitz and Brennan. Their brevity, though, makes it difficult to appreciate the wisdom of the contents unless one is directly involved with this area of collection management: the provision of a comparative case study would make these chapters more generally useful. For example, the impact of owning versus leasing would be an interesting model to explore and would go some way towards covering a weakness of Section III, in that little discussion of practical budgetary procedures is presented.
‘Cataloging, locating and accessing e-books’, written by Betsy Eggleston, explores strategic decisions (for example, should e-books be catalogued?) and the practical aspects of work flow in developing the metadata records for them. Eggleston readily admits that ‘the standards are blurry’ (p. 104) and illustrates this through a discussion of single records for a title (regardless of format) versus multiple records, each according to format. Quite properly, she offers guidance but makes no recommendation, a useful reminder to managers that creating metadata – and providing subject indexing – requires good judgement, as well as a capacity to interpret ‘the Rules’ according to local needs. ‘Whatever decisions you make will be affected heavily by financial considerations, including those related to how to meet the financial challenges of the inevitable changes in technology, data formats, and cataloging rules’ (p. 125). There are several detailed examples of MARC, RDA and AACR2 entries for different formats; the range of possible contents of several of the fields in these records is also described in some detail.
Grigg considers collection evaluation, covering the reasons (mostly economic) for the increasing need to demonstrate ‘value for money’. She describes several techniques of evaluation: data about usage, overlap analysis, the use of surveys and focus groups, benchmarking, and the Balanced Scorecard method. Where possible, she points to tools, such as Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources (COUNTER), that can reduce the labour involved in collecting the data.
Section III provides six case studies: a school library, public library and four academic libraries. In each case, the point of interest is the practical exploration of the impact of e-books. Tom Corbett considers their role in the library of an American boarding school in supporting research and reading. It is especially interesting because of the challenge with which it begins: the decision that the school collection should be come largely paperless – a decision made ‘both confidently and strategically as part of our long-range plan to build a “21st Century Leadership” curriculum’ (p. 141). The questions that immediately crowd the mind call for a much longer discussion than is offered here and it may be interesting to follow up on comment in his blog, ‘Innovations for learning’ (http://innovationsforlearning.wordpress.com/tag/tom-corbett/).
Earlier, I alluded to the need to consider marketing: Ellen Druda covers this in her case study of the Half Hollow Hills Community Library, including their, as yet unrealised, use in reading circles. Once again, the critical importance of staff attitudes and awareness is emphasised; Druda is realistic about what did not work – ‘Participants wanted to talk books, not technology’ (p. 151) – as well as the successes.
The vexed question of technology also appears in Carole Thompson’s case study of the satellite campus of Texas A&M University in Qatar. Here the issue was whether to lend e-book readers; trials of iLiad, Kindle and Sony Reader were undertaken, with the selection of the latter as the ‘system of choice’ finally being agreed. Her conclusion is interesting: that as the e-book market standardises on a more limited range of formats, the need to lend the reading technology as well as the book will diminish or vanish (p. 157). This seems sensible advice – though how long it will be before this desirable state is attained is anybody’s guess!
Impacts on staffing are considered next by Kathe Obrig, in her description of the changes in the Health Sciences Library of George Washington University. Patiently acquired skills in some areas were no longer needed quite so much – or not at all – and the organisational changes necessary are briefly outlined. One supposes that these changes were not accomplished without a degree of heart-searching, emotion and, perhaps, outrage on the one hand and excitement on the other. The case study could have been made much richer by considering these aspects and how successfully the transition in the organisational culture has been managed.
Kristina DeShazo explores the use of Electronic Resource Management (ERM) in the context of the Oregon Health and Science University. She underlines the importance of ERM in providing not only proper resource management but also for ensuring reliable user access – a point that is also implicit in the final case study, written by Marilyn Geller and Linda Roscoe, about the experience of Lesley University in combining the circulation of e-books with that of e-readers. Especially instructive is the discussion of ‘Lessons learned’ (pp. 174–175), where the practical merits of iPad and Sony Readers are considered.
In summary, a very useful book that contains much advice that has been ‘time-tested’ as far as is possible with any emerging technology. More reflection from some of the writers would have been helpful – but, perhaps there is scope for this in a future publication. An extensive index is provided and liberal use is made of sidebars, these serving to provide essential checklists for several of the topics – a useful feature for those in a hurry.