Ebook Choices at the University of Texas at Austin: Our Experience with Vendors, Librarians, Technical Support Staff and Users National Swedish Ebooks

Ebook Choices at the University of Texas at

Austin:

Our Experience with Vendors, Librarians,

Technical Support Staff and Users

National Swedish Ebooks Conference

12 December, 2002

Lindsey Schell

En liten glimpt av University of Texas Largest university in the States: 52,000 students 20,000 faculty

/staff

Ranked 5th in the US, the “General Libraries” is composed of 17 campus branches and 8 million volumes.

UT Austin is the flagship of 15 universities in a state-wide system. These schools comprise the UT System library consortium.

We also belong to TexShare, a consortium of university, secondary school and public libraries, led by the Texas State Library and to AMIGOS, the OCLC western region consortium.

UT Ebook glimt

Current contracts include netLibrary, Safari, History Ebooks

Current netLibrary purchases made through UT system, TexShare and AMIGOS

Currently have access to 50,000 netLibrary titles with 10,000 being duplicate copies.

Ebook begynnelsestadium

Summer 1999 Sought web based,

academic content No investment in hand-held

readers or special software 500 netLibrary titles posted

as a list and linked on General Libraries homepage

No promotion or marketing, no integration into library services

Kärlek vid första ögonkastet?

Extremely high usage statistics after first 6 months.

Feedback from users was enthusiastic and expressed comfort with Ebooks as a natural progression from Ejournals and electronic databases.

Positive response inspired experimentation with other Ebook companies: Ebrary, Safari, IT Knowledge and Books24x7

Början Ebook paradigm

Format: HTML, PDF, LIT Delivery: web, hand-held

readers, download, print-on-demand

Market audience: libraries, education, corporate, individual consumer

Business Model: one time fee vs. subscription, institution vs. individual consumer

Control: digital rights management, access vs. copyright

Aktuell UT strategi och praxis

Seamless delivery to academic workstations: – Web based content, no partial

books or limited content– No proprietary software or

hardware– Behind-the-scenes payment for

viewing and printing– Permanent access by one-time

purchase and maintenance fees with escrow agreement providing content on CD-ROM in the event vendor ceases business

– Vendor must have critical mass of titles, no revolving content and no subscription fees**

– MARC records for catalog integration

…Strategi och praxis… netLibrary Selection and acquisition

– TexShare and AMIGOS selection by committee

– UT system selection is title-by-title

• Past: Excel spreadsheets • Present: TitleDirect

http://www.netlibrary.com/titledirect

• Future: approval plan

• 30 UT subject bibliographers, volunteer selectors

• No administrative guidelines• Model provides widespread

knowledge/investment of Ebook collection among professional staff

• Librarians know user needs better than vendor staff

Aktuell UT kontrakt

netLibraryCosts of book + either one time access

fee or smaller ongoing annual access fee.

SafariAnnual subscription. Library regulates

cost by simultaneous users and number of books selected.

History EbooksAnnual subscription based on sliding

scale according to university size.

Användare statistiker

What are we measuring?

Use

Cost

In comparison to what?

Printed Books

E-Journals

Other E-books

Annual cost-per-use formula:

annual expenditures / annual circulation = cost-per-use

or

total collection cost / circulation over time = cost-per-use

Printed books

UT-Austin one year cost-per-use of new books

Cost = $1.8 millionTitles = 56,000Circulation = 63,000Cost per use = $28.57

In succeeding years, the overall cost-per-use of these titles decreases because the books are purchased, not subscribed to.

Printed books

UT-Austin cost per use of all books over 100 years

Titles = 7,935,540Circulation = 2,240,275Insured value (cost)=

$727,568,073Total cost per annual use = $324

…but the books have been used for between 1 and 100 years, so divide by 50 = very roughly $6.48 per use

Printed books

Statistics don’t tell us everything:

Just because a book is checked out doesn’t mean its ever going to be read.

Books are often used in libraries without being checked out.

...Nevertheless, this is the data we have.

Books have to be read…

It is the only way of discovering what they contain.

A few savage tribes eat them, ...but reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to the West.

- E. M. Forster

E-Journals

UT-Austin use of Elsevier Science Direct:

125,000 articles per year.

1200 titles

104 articles used per title, each title averages 5 volumes, so use averages 20 articles per volume per year.

Annual cost = $1.2 million,

Cost per use = $10

E-Books• Cataloging increases usage (3

months after cataloging, usage doubled when compared to 3 months prior to cataloging).

• Cataloging changes usage, broadening usage to a full range of subjects

•Highly-used printed books are highly-used e-books.

• Subject usage of a single collection (Amigos) varies by library type

• The life cycle cost of a printed book is 7 times its purchase price

Sources:Dennis Dillon. E-books: The University of Texas

Experience. Library Hi-Tech. Vol 19 #2, Vol 19 #4, 2001.

Lawrence, Connaway, Brigham. Life Cycle Costs of Library Collections. College and Research Libraries. Nov. 2001.

G. K Chesterton was once asked what books he would most like to have with him if he were stranded on a desert island,

Thomas’s Guide to Practical Shipbuilding, he replied.

netlibrary statistics

What can you find out using the administration module?

Between any two dates:Use by titleUse by subjectTurnaways

Or download the above info into a spreadsheet and:sort by LC Call Number, sort by Publisher, etc.


Statistics don’t tell us everything:

Just because an Ebook has been opened, that doesn’t mean it’s been read.

...nevertheless these are the numbers to which we have access.


Usage Reports


Date range


Collections & members

netlibrary statisticsPopular books 1

netlibrary statisticsPopular books 2

I never read a book before reviewing it

… it prejudices a man so.

--Sydney Smith


Snapshot of UT Collections:

UT volumes = 10,918

Use = 14,979

Use per volume = 1.37

But since many volumes are new…

Use over last 30 days = 1,262

x12/volumes (recent use per volume annualized) = 1.38

UT Costs = $570,000

Cost per use =$38

Cost per use over ten years = $3.78

(if recent use patterns continue)


Snapshot of Amigos I Collection:Volumes = 10,912Use by UT = 21,273Use per volume = 1.95

But since many volumes are new…Use over last 30 days = 614x12/volumes (recent use per volume

annualized) = .66

UT Costs = $20,000Cost per use = $0.94Cost per use over ten years = $0.27(if recent use patterns continue)


Snapshot of Amigos II Collection:

Volumes = 8,836

Use = 2,170

Use per volume = .25


Use over last 30 days = 358

x12/volumes (recent use per volume annualized) = .49

UT Costs = $25,000

Cost per use = $11.52

Cost per use over ten years = $0.58



Snapshot of TSLAC Collection:

Volumes = 18,258

Use at UT= 4,425

Use per volume = .24


Use over last 30 days = 645

x12/volumes (recent use per volume annualized) = .42

UT Costs = $0

UT Cost per Use = $0


Snapshot of TSLAC Collection:

Volumes = 18,258

Total Use = 120,576

Use per volume = 6.6


Use over last 30 days = 14,301

x12/volumes (recent use per volume annualized) = 9.4

TSLAC Cost (estimate) = $1.4 million

TSLAC Cost per use = $11

TSLAC Cost per use over 10 years = $0.81



Conclusion:

•Use by the same audience (UT) varies according to which titles are in which collection.

•Cost per use over ten years is low when compared to printed books or e-journals.(Since the continuing subscription costs are low or non-existent -- and e-books don’t require buildings, heating/cooling, reshelving, binding, etc.)

•If Ebooks are jointly purchased by multiple libraries and access is shared, then costs are lower than if one library purchased the books alone.

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing

… but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

-- Robert Benchley


Lifetime turnaways

netlibrary statisticsTurnaways - last two weeks


Turnaways - UT’s observations

• Most of our turnaways occurred when a computer title was repeatedly accessed on one day. (We suspect an IT staff member wrote a perl script to hit the book until it was free)

• Or when a book was assigned in a class.

• Turnaways for any title occur over a very short time span. Few titles have turnaways in more than a single week.

• We’ve rarely purchased additional copies and complaints have been few.

When I am dead

I hope it may be said

“His sins were scarlet,

But his books were read.”

-Hillaire Belloc


UT top-ranked subject usage:UT System Collection 1.Computer Science2.Economics and Business3.Medicine, Health, Wellness4.American History5.Technology and Engineering6.Literature7.Sociology8.Education9.Library Science10.Psychology11.Religion12.Mathematics

netLibrary statistics

UT bottom-ranked subject usage:

UT System Collection

51.Naval Science

50.Astronomy

49.Biography

48.Arts & Crafts

47.Military Science

46.Gay/Lesbian

45.Archaeology

44.Geology

43.Zoology

42.Cooking, Nutrition

41.Geography

netlibrary statisticsA comparison of the UT System

collection by LC Call no. (B’s represent 6% of the used collection and 5% of the

not used collection)used not used

B 6% 5%D 3% 5%E 7% 8%F 6% 7%G 2% 3%H 24% 22%J 1% 2%K 2% 2%L 4% 3%M 1% 1%N 1% -P 12% 10%Q * 12% 7%R * 9% 12%T 5% 5%Z 2% 2%

Conclusion: 40% of total titles used, 60% not used. The broad subject breakdown of used and not-used titles is essentially the same, except for Q and R, indicating an appropriate collection of subjects with some over collecting in R and under collecting in Q.

netlibrary statisticsUT Collection - publishers(9.2% of the not used books were National Academy

Press, 5.9% of the used books were National Academy Press.)

not used usedTexas - 1%Harvard Business - 1.1% O’Reilly - 2.1% SAMS - 1.7%CLIO press 1.1% 1.1%Routledge 1.1% -Scarecrow 1.2% -MIT 1.2% 5.2%New Mexico 1.5% 1.3%Southern Illinois 1.5% 1.8%McGraw-Hill 1.5% 2.1%Indiana 1.6% 2.2%Erlbaum 1.7% 3%Oxford Univ Press 2% 1.9%Texas A&M 2.3% 1.3%State Univ of NY 4.3% 4%Univ of California 6.9% 6.5%Oklahoma 7% 4.5%National Academy Press 9.2% 5.9%

Conclusion -Different publishers, different rates of use. If these use rates hold, we are likely to increasingly tailor our collection by publisher

A classic –

something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

-- Mark Twain


UT System Collection average per volume use by publication year.

1950 2 1983 3.71953 1 1984 3.91954 3 1985 3.61955 1 1986 2.61957 3 1987 2.21958 1 1988 3.81959 1 1989 2.61960 1 1990 2.91961 1.5 1991 31963 12 1992 3.11964 1 1993 2.71965 2 1994 2.91966 1 1995 3.41968 3 1996 3.11969 3 1997 41970 4 1998 4.21971 1.3 1999 4.31972 1.5 2000 4.31973 1.21974 11975 2.31976 31977 2.21978 3.81979 2.61980 31981 5.11982 2.4

Conclusion: the year of publication has made only a slight difference in use. Other factors, such as subject and publisher seem to be more relevant to use.

What about session length?

UT’s year-long experience with the now defunct IT Knowledge (2,000 computer titles) revealed that a user’s average session duration was ten minutes.

Users were finding what they needed

quickly (probably via keyword) and exiting.

From discussions with users we believe that most were locating and printing relevant pages or chapters, and then logging off

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.

Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

Ten year cost-per-use (UT)

Printed books$6.48 - $28.57

E-Journals$10

E-books$.58 - $3.78

*E-Journal cost-per-use based on Elsevier Science Direct.

*Full life cycle cost of printed books are 7 times their purchase price

Ten year cost-per-title (UT)

netLibrary

Avg. cost per titles (with permanent access) = $80

1st year costs = $80

Cost after ten years = $80

1 user, free printing

Safari

Avg cost per title (UT - 3 users) = $52

1st year costs = $52

Cost after ten years = $520

? Users, free printing


How has UT reacted to these stats?

• encouraged us to continue purchases

• encouraged us to catalog

• affected our publisher selections

• continue to ignore publication date on purchases

cont…


How has UT reacted to these stats?

• encouraged our librarians to speak well of e-books

• seldom purchased added copies

• raises questions about the effectiveness of our current program of printed book purchasing - though we have not made any changes to print purchases yet

Assessing e-books (UT)

Vendor statistics - √Cost-benefit analysis - √Anecdotal data - √Faculty/student purchase

requests - √E-reserves - √User studies - 0

Still neededStatistics on length of session

use.Continuing discussion with users

about e-booksMore time -- too early to judge


What does it all mean?

Ebooks are a valid expenditure of funds,

…but knowing what the stats don’t tell us, it is still too early to draw any far-reaching conclusions about e-book use or effectiveness.

“A good book holds you down.

It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic”

-- Roy Blount

Documents

Ebook Choices at the University of Texas at Austin: Our Experience with Vendors, Librarians, Technical Support Staff and Users National Swedish Ebooks