From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2017 13:55:59 -0700

Several private messages supplement the list discussion.  Here is one
that I have permission to anonymize and forward to the list.  (I have
already remonstrated that the "heavy hitters" on LIBLICENSE-L are
eager to hear from smart colleagues everywhere!).

Jim O'Donnell


Dear Mr. O'Donnell,

I hope you don't mind a direct email -- I feel a little presumptuous
sending out a message to the entire list, given the "heavy hitters" on
LIBLICENSE-L!

Babylon U. ran a trial of the Very Short Introductions (VSI) about a
year ago, which I managed. I didn't do much publicity other than a
short blurb on our website, typical for new database trials. We
received 4-5 pleas from students begging us to subscribe to the VSI
package -- not a lot, but many more comments than we usually receive
for new databases (crickets, usually). COUNTER reports also showed
usage across a wide range of VSI titles during the trial.

I hesitate to read too much into a small sample, but I do wonder if
our students had some existing awareness of the VSI series, or if we
had tapped into a hunger for reliable info that goes beyond
Google/Wikipedia, but is still easily readable.

That being said, my collection development colleagues ultimately
passed on subscribing. We had already purchased some individual VSI
titles (a mix of print and e-book), and my colleagues thought the
package offered too much overlap to be a good deal for the price. At
the time Oxford wasn't selling individual title access or "fill-in"
deals -- one had to purchase groups of related titles -- although this
may have changed.


> On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 8:04 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2017 07:35:25 -0700
>
> Oxford Press publishes a series of useful and smart paperbacks under
> the "Very Short Introductions" rubric:  502 volumes at last count on
> topics like:
>
> Buddhist Ethics, Cancer, Catholicism, Chaos, Children's Literature,
> Chinese Literature, Choice Theory, Christian Art, Citizenship, Civil
> Engineering, Classics, Clausewitz, Climate
>
> They sell for about $8 each on Amazon.  A license for digital access
> for a campus might cost as much as a complete print set I'm guessing.
> They're very well done and offer an appreciably-better-than-Google
> introduction to a wide variety of subjects.  But I worry that they
> would disappear into our OPAC and be essentially invisible.  I'd be
> tempted to buy the full print set and shelve them together in a
> visible place:  interesting if that were a way to make the print
> version get more use than digital would.
>
> So I write now to ask if anyone knows of library experience promoting
> this series, either digital or print.
>
> Jim O'Donnell
> Arizona State University