Building and Managing E‐Book Collections

Citation

Price‐Ewen, D. (2013), "Building and Managing E‐Book Collections", The Electronic Library, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 539-541. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-03-2013-0049

This manual covers all practical aspects of managing an e‐book collection, with contents structured around three parts: E‐Books in Context; E‐Books in Detail and E‐Books in Practice.

Kaplan's editorial command is immediately obvious in chapters one and two and is due, no doubt, in part to his own experience with building and managing e‐book collections. He managed the conversion of his college library and two branch campus libraries into a predominantly electronic collection. Kaplan also has over 30 years' experience working in a variety of academic libraries and has been published in several medical library journals. It is this final credential that affords us something special in the book – a rare and refreshing insight, by way of the second chapter “E‐Book Publishing – A View from the Industry”, into the largely hidden world of publishing. Couched in the context of chapter one, which offers the reader an excellent historical overview of the electronic book, chapter two is a standout addition. Written by Meg White (a 20 year veteran of the health sciences publishing industry), White's addition makes this book more than just a manual or a guide, it gives us an appreciation of the profound and far‐reaching impact e‐books and their related technology have, not only in the world of publishing but in the way in which we read and consume books.

White's chapter is a tough act to follow, and unfortunately, although sound in its overview of e‐book purchase versus subscription models and perpetual access versus non‐perpetual access, Lalla's “E‐Book Publishing – The View from the Library” makes for a light and at times structurally incoherent read. E‐book pricing inconsistencies as well as formatting issues are only briefly touched upon; Big Deal, PDA (patron driven acquisition); the deeper issues surrounding DRM and e‐textbooks (which oddly come under the heading “Trend”) suffer a similar fate. Some of the many well documented and digitally aired concerns and challenges that e‐book publishing and publishers present to libraries, including the requirement by libraries for publishers to relax DRM encryption for preservation purposes and the flexibility required and needed for those with print disabilities is, surprisingly, not highlighted.

Fortunately, the greater detail offered in part two of the book (E‐Books in Detail), claws back some of the ground that the previous chapter lost, with some excellent in‐depth coverage of e‐book collecting in public libraries; selecting e‐books (including understanding e‐book purchasing models, file formats, platforms and display devices) and, most importantly, the licensing of e‐books. In fact, Albitz and Brennan's chapter on the licensing of e‐books highlights, ironically, the area of concern that Lalla's “Trend” piece on DRM failed to highlight: preservation and ongoing access.

However, this chapter, so important and essential in gaining a greater understanding of some of the legal ramifications of e‐book lending (regular and interlibrary lending), as well as the reserving and preserving of e‐books, is disappointingly brief when compared to later chapters. Indeed, a large chunk of space that could have been more constructively used by Albitz and Brennan is dedicated to the chapter “Cataloguing, Locating and Accessing of E‐Books”. Although tempered with some good advice (in particular, the section “To Catalog or Not to Catalog”) it is becoming increasingly clear that the cataloguing of e‐books, especially those in ePub format (which now and into the future contain embedded meta‐data) lies squarely at the feet of RDA. The more sage advice proffered in the first section of this chapter (which is: “Don't catalogue”), may have been sufficient enough.

Finally, part three, “E‐Books in Practice”, offers some excellent examples of practise in e‐book collection building and management but tends to favour the academic library: with four examples coming from university libraries; one from a public library and one from a high school library (famous or infamous for removing its entire print collection). It is this tendency toward the academic library that leaves its audience wondering why more examples from a wider range of libraries were not sought.

Thus, Building and Managing E‐Book Collections offers a mixed bag of the pertinent and not so pertinent with a bias toward the academic library sector. However, as a guide in the development of library policy and procedure in relation to e‐book acquisition and future libraries, it makes for an inspiring read.