From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 19:28:35 -0700

Two recent adventures in library acquisitions got my attention.

Frank Oakley, former president of Williams College, has in retirement
from 2010-2015 published three volumes on the history of political
thought in the middle ages.  I knew the series was complete because it
was announced that he will receive the Haskins Medal of the Medieval
Academy, the highest award for scholarship in the field.  Good for
Frank, I thought, let's have a look.  I went to look at "our copy" and
found this:  we had not bought volume 1 (our bad), we had 2 from an
ebook vendor who puts a lot of restrictions on use, so we had volume 3
from an ebook vendor with fewer restrictions, and volume 1 is only
available in hardcover print (Yale U. Press). What to do?  I directed
we get all three in hardcover and be done with it.

Then I thought to ask about a comparable classic, the six volumes
published since 1999 of J.G. Pocock (Johns Hopkins historian) on
Edward Gibbon, under the series title *Barbarism and Religion*,
published over a period when the author went from age 75 to age 91
without losing a step (Cambridge U. Press).  Again our bad, we only
have volume 1.  What shall we do to get a "complete set".

Vol 1 cataloging record lists print and electronic from E-platform 1
(ASU has both)
Vol 2 available in paperback only  39.99 USD
Vol 3 available in cloth/HB 94.99 USD; and E-platform 2 and E-platform 3
Vol 4 available in paperback only 44.99 USD
Vol 5 available cloth/HB 104.99 USD;  and E-platform 3
Vol 6 available in cloth/HB 99.99 USD; and E-platform 2 and E-platform 3

What to do?  I directed again that we go with hardcover print, going
to the secondary marketplace to get volumes 2 and 4.

I abstain from naming the e-book platforms because, though there are
differences, the three are all alike in one important respect, their
choice to cripple the functionality of the product they sell in order
to find a business model that will let them sell the product at all.
I'll talk and write more about that in due course, but for now I just
want to emphasize that the magical availability of e-book services has
made the challenge of acquisition more difficult rather than simpler.
I *do* think that letting people have one consistent user interface to
different volumes of the same work is a desirable goal.

Jim O'Donnell
ASU