[Eril-l] Academic library ebook downloading is clumsy and ereader features inadequte - what are we doing about it?

[Diane Westerfield]

We have similar issues with our e-books. The Springre e-books are great; PDF downloads of chapters or whole books without DRM protection of files or page limits. We recently acquired a ScienceDirect e-book collection and it seems pretty similar, although you can't download a whole book at once.  Books intermingled with journals, and chapters behaving  very much like journal articles.

However, ebrary and EBL e-books are a pain and our patrons don't really want to use them. For us, our WAM proxy service disagrees with one of these platforms and patrons are forced to create an extra account, and they have to do so on campus. With both platforms you can't download much or print much. I complained vociferously but didn't get much in the way of a helpful response.

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian
Tutt Library, Colorado College
diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu<mailto:diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu>
(719) 389-6661
(719) 389-6082 (fax)




From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Harper, Cynthia
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 12:06 PM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: [Eril-l] Academic library ebook downloading is clumsy and ereader features inadequte - what are we doing about it?

Hi all - I wonder if the message is getting through to aggregator vendors like EBSCo and Proquest that the download and DRM procedures for downloaded ebooks from their collections are seen as onerous by our patrons.  I just redesigned our ebook libguide http://vts.libguides.com/ebooks, and presented the process to the rest of the library staff.  They were underwhelmed, especially when my Avira Antivirus shut off my access to the license server (again) on the computer on which I was presenting.  And requiring three logins - one for remote access, one for the aggregator site, and one Adobe ID - seems preposterous to those getting a one-shot presentation.

I also notice that once I've downloaded to Adobe Digital Editions, the features provided differs from ebook to ebooks, based on whether it was a PDf or an epub.  Some PDFs don't even support searching.  Why can't you save the quotes you've highlighted in the ebook to a file?  I wonder if because Adobe Digital Editions is free software, does it suffer from a lack of vendor commitment?  Or do publishers prevent you from saving your highlighted quotes for copyright reasons?

Are vendors engaging with their customers in discussing these issues?  Where is the listserv conversation going on?

Cindy Harper
E-services and periodicals librarian
Virginia Theological Seminary
Bishop Payne Library
3737 Seminary Road
Alexandria VA 22304
charper at vts.edu<mailto:charper at vts.edu>
703-461-1794

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