From: Valerie Yaw <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 21:15:02 +0000 It’s great to see discussion of ebooks and various models. One point I would like to clarify is that the Books at JSTOR program does include frontlist titles. We currently offer more than 7,000 ebooks with a copyright year of 2013 or later; of those, 1,700 have a copyright year of 2015. Because all ebooks on JSTOR are 100% DRM-free and available for ILL (as Scott noted), some publishers have elected to leave some of their newest books out for now. These publishers are concerned about the possible impact of these models on revenue they generate from sales of titles adopted by professors for classes. We understand this concern and will continue to work with publishers and libraries to develop sustainable access models that broaden and increase the value of monographs by making them much easier to find and use. In fact, our publisher partners have moved more than 7,700 single-user titles to JSTOR’s unlimited-user model since we transitioned to offering the unlimited model exclusively earlier this year. We are monitoring these titles to ascertain the impact of this change on usage and sales. If anyone has questions about our program and the content available, I would be happy to talk with them. All the best, Valerie Valerie Yaw Senior Marketing Manager Books at JSTOR 2 Rector Street, 18th floor New York, NY 10006 http://books.jstor.org Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 10:04 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: academic e-book vendors From: Scott Stangroom <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:25:35 -0400 Hi Jim, I am not sure I can give any advice or deep insight on this issue. It is still a bit of a new frontier for most of us. JSTOR Books seems promising. Pricing seems reasonable. Terms of use (including no DRM) are reasonable. ILL is permitted, but on the chapter level, not the entire book). We've just begun a "pilot" DDA program at UMass Amherst with our Five College consortium partners. The books in JSTOR Books are not front list, but are from reputable scholarly publishers. Mind you, I am telling you this prior to our having fully assessed the product - we've just signed a license in August and we're now in the process of loading discovery records. We of course have purchased or licensed many e-books from a variety of vendors, all of whom have up and down sides. We have a DDA program with EBL, we subscribe to ebrary academic complete (and purchase ebrary books too), we also "purchase" and license Wiley, Springer, Sage, Elsevier, Cambridge, Oxford books from the respective publishers, etc. I can't say that I'm ready to wave the flag for any of these vendors/publishers too wildly, but the books they offer serve their purpose and seem to meet some of the immediate needs of our users as they fulfill assignments and do research. Not sure it this is helpful. ~Scott ______________________ Scott Stangroom Acquisitions Coordinator University of Massachusetts, Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Library Amherst, MA 01003-9275 [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 13:46:25 -0700 The e-book landscape for libraries is challenging: business models sharply different from anything else we know, takeovers and re-alliances among providers, exogenous forces (not only from Seattle) changing the perceptions of price in the public market, etc. I'm not being *only* naive when I wonder why, when Amazon drives the price of low-use e-books down to $1.99 and lower, low-use academic e-books cost well over $100. How can "perpetual access" be defined meaningfully? What shall we do when we reasonably wish to borrow a title via ILL? As we look at these issues at ASU, I'd be glad for advice from list readers -- what vendors do you think offer the best deals (not just price, but terms of use), and also in particular the best deals for an institution committed to patron-driven acquisition? Jim O'Donnell Arizona State University