This session by Caroline ??? from Coutts

Coutts is the largest approval vendor in Canada and the UK, and they own the myilibrary platform – so as well as competing with other vendors like YBP, they also are competitors with ebrary and other e-book platforms.

Coutts part of the Ingram Book Group, which also has a number of other ‘digital’ arms – including print on demand, and digital asset management.

Caroline starting with a quote

“Most strategies are built on specific beliefs about the future. Unfrotunately the future is deeply unpredictable” – Michael E. Raynor, The Strategy paradox

Caroline noting we have moved from wondering e-books have a future, to how we work with them – no questions that they are here to stay.

Caroline saying that one of the most common questions she hears are “What are other libraries doing?” – she is saying that there are a number of answers:

• Some libraries doing nothing! Caroline says – this is not an option. Some material will only be available in ‘e-book’
• Some libraries taking a ‘wait and see’ – similar to doing nothing, but with active monitoring of situation. This may be wise, but there are costs:
• Patron dissatisfaction – they will know there are e-books out there, but you won’t be supplying them
• E-books can make researchers more efficient (study at University of Toronto – but no reference)
• Collaboration functionality possible with e-books
• Libraries investing in digitisation, and this is high cost – the longer you keep buying print, the longer you will be digitising, and you don’t necessarily get the same functionality – and you continue to have space management issues etc.
• Some libraries “Form a Committee”!
• This may be combined with other strategies
• Caroline thinks that joking aside this is a good idea – need discussion about the issues in your library – lots of stakeholders within your library and you need them involved
• Caroline noting that the e-book committees she has seen are full of younger librarians – which she is concerned suggests that we aren’t taking e-books as seriously as we need to – we need to involve senior/more experienced librarians in the discussions as well

Caroline saying:

• E-books are not just another binding – many differences
• Subscription based subject packgages
• Perpetual access publiher packages
• Individual titles
• Front list
• Back list
• Which areas  – Humanities, Sciences, Reference
• Single or multiple users

Caroline mentioning pros and cons of going straight to the publishers:

• Pros:
• no middle man
• aggregation with journal content
• packages usually significantly discounted in relation to print (but this may be part of a ‘deal’ which means you save on individual titles, but spend more with the publisher overall)
• Cons
• Numerous licenses
• Numerous invoices
• MARC records
• Title-by-Title
• Not all have platforms
• Multiple search silos (I have to say that I see this as a problem with book vendors as well, although possibly of a smaller scale – i.e. less silos)
• Limited collection development support

You can also purchase from a subscription agent – although Caroline doesn’t know of any library actually doing this. She runs very very quickly through some pros and cons, but hasn’t got much time, so skipped it mostly.

Finally, via an aggregator:

• Pros
• Single search silo for ebooks
• title by title selection
• packages
• patron driven
• …
• Cons
• didn’t get time for these

Also, can buy from a book vendor – they have a lot of experience with all the things Mike listed in his previous talk.

Caroline, not suprisingly, seemed to favour the options around an aggregator (i.e. myilibrary) and vendors (e.g. Coutts)

Overall Caroline’s talk was good, but at the end felt it was a pitch for business for Coutts. Don’t mind this, but felt she over-egged it a bit, and I didn’t need this to understand the point.