Managing e-books in a business school library: case study of Ebrary Academic Complete
ISSN: 2514-9326
Article publication date: 2 January 2018
Issue publication date: 2 January 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The 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/approach
The 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.
Findings
The 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/value
The 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.
Keywords
Citation
Anilkumar, H., Dora, M. and Desai, A. (2018), "Managing e-books in a business school library: case study of Ebrary Academic Complete", Collection and Curation, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-01-2018-003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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