Building A Digital Ref Collection
- 1. Building a Digital Reference Collection at Washington University Libraries
- 2. Reference Collection Conversion : Mandate September 2007 Dean requested an 90% reduction of 12,000 volume Reference collection Asked to ID the most important print titles and look for electronic counterparts to them One-to- one conversion concept versus buying electronic collections Budget $50,000 +/- Required completion March 2008
- 3. What We Learned: Librarians eBook monographs often become yearly subscriptions to the latest edition - often eBook pricing varies from institution to institution it is very time consuming to gather this information eBooks individually cost 1.5 times more than the print edition – for multiple user access Ebook collections vs. purchasing individual ebooks select some excellent publishers that offer ownership over time increase your purchase of titles
- 4. What We Learned: Librarians eBook collections select some excellent publishers that offer ownership over time increase your purchase of titles eBook – individual titles select these as needed a try to build collections in an interface out of them Interoperability factor you will end up with ebooks in multiple platforms huge issue for user
- 5. What We Learned: Librarians You need to reeducate self to do reference work if you familiar with using print sources no close proximity to print works no visual cues of book on shelves it is easy to forget once familiar titles ALA Guide to Reference online – mitigates memory loss Need to devise methods of taking advantage of online environment need to concentrate and diffuse ebooks need to organize them for librarians as primary user
- 6. What We Learned: Librarians Traditional review literature does not do a good job of evaluating ebooks or ecollections Booklist – November issue compares 5 collections Choice Reviews Online – annual issue new electronic resources – vendor list College and Research Library News Go to online sources for info- blogs, newsletters Additional methods of comparing sources ask vendor trial side-by-side take a set of questions through each ebook or ecollection
- 7. What We Learned: the User eBooks don’t know very much about how students or faculty use them can get usage statistics from vendors/publishers
- 8. What We Learned: Librarians Advertise and market ebooks in library blogs, emails, and newsletters in multiple places on website & research guides put into federated searching software put into catalog – MARC records demo them to students and faculty eFormat and print format – some common issues users to do not know an ebook exists users do not know what content is present in the ebook users do not know how to use them – per se
- 9. Questions for Vendors Content Questions 1. Is the ebook missing print content? Illustrations, graphs or tables, index? 2. Is there unique content in the ebook? 3. Can I repurpose the content?
- 10. Questions for Vendors Content Questions 4. Can I highlight, bookmark, print, copy, and/or save the content? 5. How often do you update content? 6. Is a perpetual archive guaranteed, and can I have a local copy?
- 11. Questions for Vendors Interface – Cataloging – Statistics Question 7. Is the interface user friendly? Clarity of help menus and user guides? 8. What unique tools are available? Searching features? Citation formats?
- 12. Questions for Vendors Platform – Access – Ownership Questions 9. Are platform fees one time or annual? 10. Is access by IP Address? 11. Can I pay for one user access? Multiple user access?
- 13. Questions for Vendors Interface – Cataloging – Statistics Questions 12. Do you offer MARC records? What fields are included? Excluded? 13. Do you offer usage statistics? What is measured? Clicks? Search terms? Duration of use? Adapted from “Buying Ebooks” by Heather Wicht Netconnect Spring 2006
- 14. The Process: Step 1 Ran a list of all titles in Reference collection in call number order Sent out an email to 17 Subject librarians with the list of all titles as an attachment Requested subject librarians to ID books to stay in collection to relocate to another location to indicate circulating or non-circulating status Student created an Excel file of titles to remain in Reference collection and titles to move
- 15. The Process: Step 2 Ran a list of 200 + standing order titles received in Reference and put it in Excel bulk of our yearly titles to convert were standing orders Evaluated titles to cancel to look for in an electronic format to keep in print if not available electronically Information needed on each title price holdings dates multiple subscriptions historical value of information
- 16. Step 3 Determined which standing order/serials titles were available as ebooks searched publisher/vendor sites searched WorldCat contacted sales reps If ebook available analyzed variables Older editions – availability no availability must purchase as back file additional cost and subscription based only
- 17. Step 3: Continued If ebook available analyzed variables – continued Access fees separate fee for each title single fee for each title (Oxford) Did not trial most titles time constraints to meet April deadline good idea for comparison between vendors/publishers
- 18. The Process: Step 4 & 5 Record changes to 11, 225 volumes were made Errors and anomalies discovered bibliographic and holdings information titles and volumes without barcodes missing titles found spine label errors Shelving Staff integrates 9,000 volumes into General Stacks major shifting necessary