[Eril-l] Print vs. E-books in context/in tandem

[Swindler, Luke]

Just as we need to consider librarian book selection within the larger context of what other means of providing relevant books are available and how the value of title-by-title acquisitions competes with other collections functions, so too do we need to go beyond simplistic dichotomies of print circulation vs. e-book usage.


Based on published research together with the UNC experience and bringing up points that have not yet been mentioned:

  *   • Print and e-books use exist in tandem, with differentials, complementarities, and interactions;
  *   • The more e-books available to users, the more accustomed they are to using them, which depresses print book circulation;
  *   • When both book formats are available, print circulation is further depressed—especially when e-books acquisitions concentrate on the better publishers who typically produce higher use books, as is the case at UNC;
  *   • UNC has found print circulation is still further depressed when titles in both formats are available, because e-books are used before their print counterparts and presumably as a result readers find they do not want the print book and/or the e-books provides the needed information;
  *   • While print book circulation generally is declining all academic libraries, UNC has found that pursuing some of the strategies above has accelerated this decline;
  *   • As libraries acquire more e-books, their aggregate use increases;
  *   • As academic libraries acquire more print books, their aggregate circulation almost invariably declines;
  *   • Within this context, overall print book acquisitions are a loser proposition and, where such is the case, libraries need to cut their loses by reducing print purchases accordingly and the time spent on acquiring them.


Luke Swindler


On Sep 25, 2015, at 12:58 PM, Rick Anderson <rick.anderson at utah.edu<mailto:rick.anderson at utah.edu>> wrote:

Although we heavily rely here on DDA, we also still purchase print, but with extreme budget cuts we can no longer afford allocating large sums to the "just in case" method. Just can't do it or justify it; there are too many other priorities fighting their way to the top of the budget.

This is indeed a really, really difficult dimension of the issue. The question about print books isn’t just whether they’re valuable, but how their value stacks up against that of the other valuable things we have to buy.

And of course that’s also the question about ebooks, databases, print journals, ejournals, A/V materials, etc. Our job isn’t only to identify and purchase things that are valuable—that’s the fun and relatively easy part—but also to choose between multiple valuable things when we can’t afford all of them. That’s the difficult and frustrating part.

---

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.eril-l.org/pipermail/eril-l-eril-l.org/attachments/20150925/dccca983/attachment-0001.html>