From: "Peter B. Hirtle" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:13:14 +0000 In addition to the ILL issues, I have concerns about other functionality and the pricing of Books at JSTOR: 1. My understanding is that under the single-user model, up to 30 chapters can be downloaded from the book after which the library must start paying for each download. Downloaded chapters cannot be printed, and there is no copying or pasting. Perhaps this would be acceptable if books cost a fraction of what they do in print, but this does not appear to be the case. It is hard to imagine purchasing an electronic resource that cannot be printed but can only be viewed on-screen. 2. There is more functionality with multi-user licenses, but the pricing of those licenses is a concern. Electronic serial publications from the publishers participating in Books at JSTOR as well as e-books from many other publishers offer unlimited use at a price either less than the cost of a single print subscription (in the case of journals) or at the full price of a single book. The price of the Books at JSTOR multi-user licenses is often double the price of a single user. 3. There does not appear to be any discount for libraries that have already bought the content in print and are therefore just purchasing access in a different format. UNC's excellent "E-Books Platforms Recommendations & E-books Collections Strategy" document (available at http://vkwb.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/EBooks_-Platforms_Recommendations.pdf) lists other reasons why Books at JSTOR may be unacceptable (such as its sole reliance on PDFs). Given the justified confidence and respect that faculty and librarians have in JSTOR, it is a disappointment that its foray into e-books does not appear to improve the e-book environment for librarians. If we accept licenses such as these, we only have ourselves to blame. Peter Hirtle