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