Special features of library’s e-book acquisition for the customer
Library acquires e-books, including course books, in many ways and acquisition models. Some books are acquired permanently for the library's collections, but some are later removed due to the acquisition method. Requests made by customers are taken into account, but availability and the price set their own limits.
From time to time, the library receives requests from customers for e-books that cannot be acquired for library use. For example, Amazon offers affordable e-books that are only licensed to individuals. On the other hand, e-books acquired by the library are licensed to the organization, which means that the price differs from the price of e-books intended for individuals. E-books for private individuals are usually downloadable and stored on one device, while the library only acquires resources that are used online throughout the university. Some e-books may even have a consumer version of only one device available for purchase, but not a campus-wide version, which means that they are not suitable for acquisition by the library.
Most publishers offer e-books for library use through major aggregator platforms. Not all publishers even have their own platform for making e-books available to library customers. Foreign e-books are acquired for libraries for example from Ebsco and Proquest. However, not all e-books are available through aggregators, so they must also be acquired directly from publishers. Finnish e-books are often only available on the Ellibs platform. Aggregators enter with publishers into agreements that define the terms of use for e-books. Because agreements are publisher-specific, there can for example be considerable variation in the size of the parts of e-books that can be printed or downloaded.
E-books are not always purchased for permanent use unlike printed books. This is why sometimes a previously used e-book is no longer available. It is possible to purchase e-books for the library one-by-one or in packages as an annual subscription or individually using a so-called credit model, in which case each use of the e-book is deducted from the number of credits purchased. Once the credits have been used up, more must be purchased if estimation is that there will still be use.
The library may also agree with a publisher to temporarily upload numerous e-books to be used through the library database. Some books remain in permanent use based on how library customers have used them. Access to other e-books included in the package will cease if the library does not make a new deposit into the publisher's account. For this reason, too, it is important that changes in compulsory course books are reported separately to the library. If a particular book is known in the library to be part of the course requirements, its disappearance from the reach of students can often be prevented.
The most common feature of e-books acquired by the library is that the book can be read concurrently either by an unlimited number of readers, by three readers or by one reader. However, even the most recent option allows you to share a link to the book in the library's database, allowing one reader to start reading the book online when the previous reader has stopped. Thus, an e-book that can be downloaded to one device, is different from a single-user campus-wide e-book that is used in the library. The library typically acquires e-books for one concurrent user for cost reasons. In general, the need for simultaneous use is not very great if it is not a course book. In most cases, unlimited concurrent access to course books is obtained if it is financially feasible.
E-books guide contains information on
e-book databases
e-books for teaching
open e-books
accessibility and Celia audio books