The ebooks marketplace: try and then try again!

Caren MilloyHead of Projects, Jisc Collections

26/11/13 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

ONCE UPON A TIME….

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2001

• Shaping a strategy for e-books: An issue paperHazel Woodward & Louise Edwards

• This paper set out the issues that the JISC e-books working group needed to consider in 2001 when developing one of their first strategies for e-books within UK higher and further education.

• Paper talks of difficulty in getting value from aggregators, % of frontlist content available, digitisation, mobile devices, MLE, preservation, textbooks, direct to student sales, access v purchase, standards……

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2001

• EBWG recommends that we focus on e-reference and commissions 4 other studies to inform strategy:

• The e-Book Mapping Exercise• Promoting

the Uptake of E-books in Higher and Further Education

• E-Books in FE and HE Strategy Study • An Investigation into Free E-books

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2002

Ebooks deals:• Know UK and European Sources Online • Xreferplus • Oxford Reference Online • Elsevier Major Reference Works

Business models: Subscription / Purchase

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Timeline: 2003

Ebooks deals:• Taylor & Francis eBook store • Wiley Interscience Online Books • Britannica Online • The Oxford English Dictionary Online • Literature Online and Lion for Colleges• EEBO

Business models: Subscription / Purchase

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A Strategy and Vision for the Future for Electronic Textbooks in UK Further and Higher Education, August 2003, Education for Change Ltd, University of Stirling Centre for Publishing Studies & University of Stirling Information• This study took an in-depth look at e-textbook landscape, exploring the

challenges and barriers to the adoption of e-textbooks in HE and FE. Despite being undertaken in 2003, this report includes a wealth of information on business models, promotional models and supply chain models that are still of relevance today. The report was used by the e-books working group to help develop its vision for e-textbooks in education.

Promoting the Uptake of E-Books in Higher and Further Education, August 2003, Gold Leaf• This report highlighted the barriers that institutions were facing in the uptake of

e-books and made recommendations on how these could be removed and how e-books could be promoted more fully by a wider range of institutions and individuals. This report is still relevant today.

Timeline: 2003

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

The E-book Mapping Exercise, April 2003, Chris Armstrong and Ray Lonsdale of Information Automation Ltd• This study investigated perceptions and attitudes to e-books and explored acquisition,

licensing and pricing models that were being deployed. It focused on business and management, engineering, and health and medicine subject areas. The study concluded that the preferred format for delivery was online PDFs and that undergraduate textbooks together with reference books would constitute the primary purchasing areas. The study also found that there was marked concern about the proliferation of existing licensing and costing models.

An investigation into free e-books, March 2004, Ylva Berglund, Alan Morrison, Rowan Wilson and Martin Wynne• This study, undertaken by AHDS, informed the e-books working group on the

availability of free e-books for teaching and learning. The study gathered information on what free e-books were available, the formats of these free e-book, usage of the free e-books in education and the needs and attitudes of FE and HE users in the arts and humanities subject area.

Timeline: 2003

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Ebook deals:• Gale Virtual Reference Library (free to FE)• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography • Oxford Scholarship Online• The Academic Library

Timeline: 2004

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Timeline: 2005

Ebooks deals:• ACLS History E-books Project • Grove Music Online • Grove Art Online • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) • The Shakespeare Collection

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2006Ebooks deals:• The Literary Encyclopedia • The Routledge Reference Resources Online (pick n mix)

Studies:Testbed for the Interoperability of Metadata for E-books (TIME), April 2006, Rightscom Ltd• This study developed a testbed to help provide a solution to one of the key challenges identified

for the take-up of e-books: the lack of standardised e-book catalogue records and also the lack of interoperability between different e-book metadata records.

A feasibility study on the acquisition of e-books by HE libraries and the role of JISC Collections, October 2006, The Higher Education Consultancy Group• This report explored the e-books landscape in 2006 and looked at the challenges and barriers

facing HE libraries, publishers and JISC Collections in acquiring e-books. It makes recommendations on how JISC should proceed to help libraries in providing e-textbooks to the their students. The report identified 8 key action points and was instrumental in the formation of the JISC national e-books observatory project.

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Issue to Address Possible Role for JISC

1.Ignorance in the HE sector about what e-books are available

Taking the lead in international discussions of the options for developing a standard catalogue of e-books

2. Low awareness in HEIs of the relevance and value of e-books

Providing support for internal awareness raising in collaboration with the HE Academy and other intermediaries

3.Poor understanding by publishers and library staff of each other’s needs

Promotion of mutual understanding through co-ordination of regular meetings

4.Complexity of some access routes to publishers’ or aggregators’ platforms deters users

Encouraging or developing a common platform based on JISC data centres or seeking tenders for providing a standard platform

5. Too few e-textbooks and core monographs are available

Negotiating with aggregator(s) to provide sector access to a large general collection and subject collections

6. The available e-books are not up to date or relevant to UK users

Taking the lead in establishing a National e-Book Collection (NeBColl)

7. Pricing models for e-books are not appropriate

Ensuring that suppliers are aware of the pricing models that the HE market wishes to have (through the meetings at item 3) and regularly updating the model licence and relevant agreements accordingly

8Publishers are not making the right textbooks available electronically on the right terms

Piloting support for the development of key texts available to multiple users

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Timeline: 2007

EBWG Vision focus:• Promoting e-book standards to ensure accessibility, robust

metadata, flexible licensing and functionality.• Facilitating relationships between publishers and libraries to

provide better understanding of needs and sharing of knowledge to enhance access to e-book information

• Creating flexible business and licensing models that take into account the rise of the institutional repository

• Supporting the growing demand for e-textbooks by undertaking a national project

• Holding forums for raising awareness regarding best practice for FE and HE

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Timeline: 2007

JISC national ebooks observatory project started• Market research• Evidence gathering• Informed decisions not assumption• National pilot

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Timeline: 2008 - 9Findings from the first user survey, CIBER Final Report, April 2008• This report provides an overview of the findings from the first user survey undertaken in January 2008. The

data gathered provides a benchmark against which the changes in user’s attitudes, perceptions and awareness of e-books can be measured. There were over 22,000 responses to this survey.

Analysis of the free text fields from the first user survey, CIBER, Final Report, May 2008• This report provides an analysis of the responses to two open questions in the entrance user survey. The

first was ‘In your opinion, what were the biggest advantages that e book offered, compared with a printed ‐book?’. This elicited 11,624 responses. The second question was ‘Is there anything that you want to add regarding course texts, print or electronic, or about your university library?’ In total 4809 comments were received to this question.

E-book use by academic staff and students in UK universities: focus groups report, Information Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009• This report provides an analysis of the focus groups held with students and academic staff at 8 universities.

The focus groups aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the JISC e-books and e-textbooks in general were used by students and staff. They focused on work patterns; attitudes; involvement in e-textbook selection (academics only); the means by which e-books are located trough the library and institution; the means by which content is discovered in the e-textbook; added-value features; the effects of screen design on reading; impacts on learning and teaching; users’ views on promotion of e-textbooks; and views on the purchase of textbooks. This is a long report with many insightful quotes.

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2009E-book collection management in UK university libraries: focus groups reportInformation Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009This report provides an analysis of the focus groups held with librarians at 8 universities. The focus groups investigated the attitudes and work of library staff responsible for establishing, managing and promoting the e-book collections. They focused on: selection; licensing and pricing models; cataloguing and MARC records; ways of accessing e-books; promotion; evaluation; and the platform interface through which the JISC e-books were available. This is a long report with many insightful quotes.

Assessing the impact of electronic course texts on print sales and library hard copy circulationCIBER, Final Report, November 2009This report looks at the impact of free at the point of use course text e-books licensed for the Observatory project on publisher’s retail sales and library circulation data. It is an extremely interesting report that uses transparent data.

Establishing methods for future studies on the impact of e-booksInformation Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009This report looks at possible areas of research that would be beneficial based on the findings of the focus groups and the user surveys.

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2009Scholarly e-books usage and information seeking behaviour: a deep log analysis of MyiLibraryCIBER, Final Report, November 2009 • This report includes detailed data from the deep log analysis of the MyiLibrary platform that took place from

September 2007 to December 2008. The deep log analysis looked at how users discovered, navigated through and used the 26 course text e-books that were made available on the MyiLibrary platform. In addition, the use of 10,000 other e-books on the MyiLibrary platform were analysed for comparison. There is an executive summary for quick reference that highlights findings on subject differences, reading times, searching, user locations etc.

Headline findings from the user surveysCIBER Final Report, November 2009This report provides an overview of the exit user survey undertaken in January 2009 and compares the key findings with the entrance user survey that took place in January 2008. The surveys explored user’s awareness, perceptions and attitudes towards e-books and course text e-books. Together these surveys received over 52,000 responses making them the biggest user survey on e-books ever undertaken in the world.

JISC national e-books observatory project: Key findings and recommendationsFinal Report, November 2009• This is the final report of the Observatory project and includes key findings and recommendations for

stakeholders. It brings together the data from the deep log analysis, the user surveys, the focus groups and the print and library circulation analysis.

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2009 +Ebooks for FE project started in 2009…still going today….• Success at last! Over 400 colleges • Access management• Usage has increased each year (uneven & depends on teachers)But• Hard to get the right content & stay up to date• Hard to get the publishers to engage (big 3)• Discoverability in catalogues • Titles being removed causes despair• Reliance on this project / not really stimulated market• Skills sector / ACL / WBL still not tackled• Subscription / Purchase / PPV – Puchase / EBS

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Timeline: 2010 - 13E-textbook business models study: final reportSeptember 2011

• reviewed the current e-textbook landscape • hands-on trial of four e-textbook business models with ten UK HE institutions, eight textbook publishers

and three aggregators over a period of a year. Seventeen textbook titles were involved, in 24 separate trials across the 10 libraries.

Recommendations

“we find it unrealistic to justify a recommendation proposing that the current model of student purchasing of textbooks be replaced by library provision of e-textbooks, in the light of the financial scale of this market (and hence the impact on library budgets), and the fact that the current model generally ‘works’”

“We cannot recommend therefore that librarians seek to move at this point in time to a position in which libraries attempt to provide substantial numbers of e-textbooks for student needs.”

• Libraries should negotiate direct with publishers on etextbooks• More research and experimentation required on mobile devices• The granularity and integration into the VLE is critical to use• Counter stats need to be further developed for ebooks• Jisc Collections should initiate discussions with CouseSmart ……

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Timeline: 2012/13

PDA and EBS agreements for ebooksConsortia Ebooks Pilot in 2012/13• JISC Collections had some successes with the

purchase of ebook collections, but less so with individual titles

• attempt to trial a specific business model for individual titles

The model

• Consortium of 6 academic libraries with large Engineering Faculties

• 6 publishers of engineering books (some large engineering publishers excluded as libraries had existing big deals)

• Whenever one of the libraries purchased an ebook, all libraries had access

• ‘Price multiplier’ negotiated with each publisher. In the pilot this was paid by JISC Collections. In a ‘real life’ consortia it would be split among the libraries

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Implementation (more challenging than expected!)

• Hosting service

• Libraries consulted: took time to reach a consensus. (All used multiple ebook aggregator platforms)

• Dawson Books (Dawsonera) chosen

• Negotiation & agreement: also took time

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Implementation

• The ebooks• Libraries slow to start ordering

titles & requested title lists from publishers

• Ebook title lists supplied by publishers

• Workflow issues for libraries & hosting service

• First orders placed December 2012

• Delay in MARC records provision

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Finally… the pilot was running

• It had been hoped to run the pilot for a full academic fiscal year

• In reality the pilot began in earnest in December 2012 & ran until July 2012

• Books were being ordered and used

• COUNTER ebook usage statistics (BR1 & BR2) were being collected

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07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• Very high usage of books• All libraries got more value than they

purchased• 98.6% of books were used by at least 1 library• Percentage bought and not used by individual

library averaged 7% - very low compared to recent PDA studies in Germany and the USA which were closer to 85%

Finding (in a nutshell)

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• 5 out of the 6 libraries said they would be interested in pursuing consortial ebook purchasing using this business model

• In the light of the data they were pleased with both the level of use of titles they had purchased, and their use of titles purchased by other institutions

• They would be happy to put money into a consortial ‘pot’ to widen their access to ebook titles (funds permitting)

• One librarian commented: “Increased access is the real benefit and saving money is a bonus”

What did the librarians think of the pilot?

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• Librarians commented that the important factor in a consortia is having synergy between the libraries (e.g. research/ teaching focused)

• The majority favoured subject-based ebook consortium

• The portfolio of publishers participating in the consortia was very important

• Most favoured a minimum level of financial commitment from participating libraries

What type of consortia?

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• The majority of publishers were disappointed with the sales figures

• However, on the whole, they were pleased and very interested in the usage data

• An interesting finding from the pilot was that none of the publishers examined ebook usage in detail at company level (only ejournal usage)

• All publishers said that they only had access to usage data from their own platform – ebook aggregators did not supply them with usage statistics

What did the publishers think?

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• In general, the smaller publishers were most enthusiastic…”our role as a publisher is to get our content out there…. we need to get our brand noticed”

• All publishers commented that they needed to protect the value of their titles

• Of the 3 larger publishers only one was positive about the business model. However, they felt that a variable price multiplier would be necessary to enable them to offer both back list and current high demand titles

What did the publishers think?

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• One publisher said they were very interested in evidence based purchasing and would like JISC Collections to pursue that model

• Another publisher stated that they did not like the business model saying “it is not sustainable”

• They went on to say “we are keen to work with library consortia but we don’t like shared ownership/collections… we would rather give a discount”

What alternative did publishers suggest?

Who are the winners?• Librarians. The majority felt that the

business model worked well and they got good value-for-money

• Publishers. Were not enthusiastic about the business model but suffered no financial detriment

• The Consortia. Obtained valuable, unique data about the business model & usage of the shared collection

• But the REAL WINNERS were the USERS who had access to much more content… and used it!

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Timeline: 2013

• JOSHUA JAMES HARDING, Medical student, UKG Presentation wowed us all!!

• “A number of initiatives in universities and schools have adopted the iPad, placing it at the focal point for teaching and learning, moving from the rigid textbook and paper of analogue classrooms to a digital, portable, personalized learning environment. As the adoption of tablets increases, students’ expectations will rise and they will require instant access to their most used resources, whether they are currently digital or analogue.”

• “So the obvious question would be: as an institution, library, or publisher, are you ready to meet this inevitable demand?”

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• “… the pace and complexities of discussing just one patient in a group work render the paper textbook as useful as the proverbial chocolate teapot”

• “I am now a completely paperless student. My primary source of information for medicine is now my iPad, providing me with a tool to access everything I require to study the academic portion of my course all on one device the size and weight of a paper note-book.”

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• “A paper textbook cannot play you videos, it cannot play you audio to help explain diagrams or pictures, and it cannot provide you with a way to manipulate its content. All these things may mean the difference between a student understanding a concept, and not.”

• “Using a digital approach during a lecture, I am able to download the slides, export them to my note taking app and annotate during the lecture using text or handwriting whilst recording the speaker. I can switch between my note taking app and other resources, giving me access whilst in the lecture to the same textbook the majority of my classmates will consult that evening to fill in the gaps.”

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• “.’Smart’ textbooks are something I would like to see in the future.”

• “Imagine a book that whilst I study it, is studying me, observing which chapters I have read the least and most, when I first covered a topic and my scores on each quiz and test taken.”

Quotes from his article: http://uksg.metapress.com/content/t1536635x83n7274/?p=5e3095babdbf432da8d64fec2daaf0bb&pi=4

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Could we do this?

• This is one case study – but perhaps a vision of the future expectations:

– A truly interactive e-books – with video and audio and self assessment

– Institutions can use data analytics to turn the “e-text book” into a “study buddy”

– An opportunity for institutions?

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Institution as e-textbook publisher• Lets make our own business model• Make use of technology – meet those expectations

that Joshua has• Create learning objects / etextbook / VLE• Make it and give it away (Moocs / OERs)• Make it and sell it• Reward the authors• Explore the scaling opportunities• Be innovative, create a new paradigm

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

Try and then try again

• A market full of complexities• A market with a wide variety of demands and

increasing expectations• A market with emerging technologies• A market with plenty of historyButWe have made progress! We have been very adaptable, implemented new standards and explored new models. We just need to keep on trying and then try again!

07/04/2023 JIBS: The joys and perils of Ebooks, we thought it would be easier!

• Thank you!

• c.milloy@jisc-collections.ac.uk• @carenmilloy