E-books are versatile options with different license types, file formats, and a wide variety of prices. Availability of e-books is sometimes a challenge, especially for academic libraries. The publishers set how an e-book is marketed; some markets are not open to academic libraries (e-textbooks for example), and some are very limited (bestsellers, general fiction).
Purchasing E-books:
- Academic libraries can purchase from academic library e-book vendors or directly from publishing houses
- Academic libraries cannot order e-books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or from publishers specializing in general readership (such as children's books, thrillers, beach reads, etc.)
- License types vary per e-book. Common license types are:
- 1 user - 1 user at a time may access the e-book
- 3 user - 3 readers can check out and read an e-book simultaneously
- 365 days - a year's rental, rather than perpetual purchase
- multiple users - many users can check out or use the book simultaneously
- unlimited, DRM free - unlimited concurrent users, digital rights management free (no restrictions on printing/downloading)
- E-books do not come in all license types, some are 1 user only and some offer several types
- Generally, the more concurrent users allowed, the more expensive the license
Advantages:
- Purchased e-books cannot be lost
- Academic e-book vendors offer collections of titles curated for undergraduate and graduate studies
- If a multi-user license is purchased, an e-book may be viewed by several to many students at any given time - this is very beneficial if the book serves as a required course book.
- E-books come in different formats, they can be read online, portions downloaded, and sometimes come as PDFs
Disadvantages:
- Some books, even heavily used books in academia, are not and may never be digitized
- E-books published as mass-fiction are not always available for academic libraries; often they are marketed for public libraries only
- Academic libraries are not able to purchase proprietary formats such as Kindle and Nook for library access
- E-books have varying digital rights management (DRM); some can be restrictive for printing and downloading
- Studies find that e-books can be harder for some students to use, or some students simply prefer physical copies
