Managing e-books in a business school library: case study of Ebrary Academic Complete

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to review the e-books collection, namely, Ebrary Academic Complete, by understanding its features, cost and usage at Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). The study attempts to understand the usefulness of Ebrary in terms of its...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Collection and Curation 2018-01, Vol.37 (1), p.18-25
Main Authors: Anilkumar, Hanumappa, Dora, Mallikarjun, Desai, Asha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic libraries
Collection development
E-books
Internet resources
Library and information science
Library collections
Marketing
Publishing industry
Researchers
Science
Studies
Subscriptions
Trends
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Summary:PurposeThe purpose of the study is to review the e-books collection, namely, Ebrary Academic Complete, by understanding its features, cost and usage at Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). The study attempts to understand the usefulness of Ebrary in terms of its currency of titles, publishers, subjects and cost.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on five-year usage data of Ebrary Academic Complete at Vikram Sarabhai Library, IIMA. The data on usage of Ebrary was downloaded and analyzed on different parameters to find out the overall value or use of Ebrary Academic Complete package from the perspective of a management library.FindingsThe research concluded that there was an increase in usage of Ebrary Academic Complete over time. The subject analysis revealed that titles from “Business and Economics”, “Computers” and “Social Science” were the highest used. The publisher analysis indicated that John Wiley & Sons topped in both the highest number of titles in the package and highest used titles. The annual subscription fee model of Ebrary Academic Complete adopted by Vikram Sarabhai Library was working well with a gradual increase in usage bringing down the per title access costs.Originality/valueThe study helps in understanding the approach to evaluating e-book collections in terms of currency of content, subjects covered, publishers included and costs involved. The detailed analysis would assist libraries in decision-making with regard to e-book collection development.
ISSN:2514-9326
2514-9334
DOI:10.1108/CC-01-2018-003