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Sharing netLibrary e-Books Among the Academic Libraries

in Taiwan

Ellen F. Liu

Professor, Graduate Institute of Library and Information Scie

nce, National Chung-Hsing University

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Outline

• Introduction • Related Literature• Consortium Purchasing of e-

Books in Taiwan• Discussion

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Introduction I – Higher Education System SY2005-2006

General Universities 60

Colleges 10

Technology Universities 29

Colleges 46

Junior Colleges

17

Total 162

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Introduction II – Number of Students

SY 2005-2006

Univ. & Colleges 938,648

Master Programs 149,493

Ph.D. Programs 27,531

Junior Colleges 180,886

Total 1,296,558

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Introduction III – Number of Faculty & Staff

SY 2005-2006

(Source: Summary of Universities, Colleges, and Junior Colleges, SY2005-

2006)

SY2005-2006 Total Students & Staff in HE

1,406,429 Question: How many of these would use e-books? Probably less than 16%.

Faculty Full-time 47,317

Part-time 41,601

Assistants 2,284

Staff 18,669

Total 109,871

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Introduction III – Number of Faculty & Staff

SY 2005-2006 (cont’d)

If an estimate of 260,000 “Others”—non-degree students, alumni, retirees… is added, the academic libraries would serve an estimated total of 1,690,000 users. (Source: 2005 Library Yearbook)

With this estimate, the percentage of potential e-book users would be even lower.

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E-Book & Collection Development

Deliberations at the Turn of the New Millennium

• Publishing trends in e resources: databases, e-journals, e-books…

• Expenditures (from a survey of 159 libraries of HE in 2004)

Printed Books 37%

Printed Journals 35%

AV 5%

E Resources 22%

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E-Book & Collection Development

Deliberations at the Turn of the New Millennium (cont’d)• Collections of E Resources

• Manpower 135 libraries 1,696 staff Average 12.6 per lib• Reading & Circulation Collections to Support Educational Programs,

Research… Scholarly Communication vs. Leisure Reading English Books vs. Chinese Books

Types No. of Lib Average Size Max. Size

E Journals 131 7,968 63,632

Databases 136 81 943

E Books 127 5,851 311,965

Other E Resources 97 484 29,783

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Related Literature－ Taiwan

Early Experience of Tamkang University Library Purchased netLibrary 1,200 volumes in July 2000 Usage Statistics Reported: July 2000-Oct.11, 2001　　 Total Accesses 577　　 Subjects Accessed Most 　 Business & Economics 92 　 Library Science 92 　 Literature 57One observation: the netLibrary model, befitting consortiu

m purchase, could augment shared resources.

(Hwang & Li, 2001)

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Related Literature－UK

2001 Londsdale & Armstrong: a slow acceptance of nearly all digital textual Resources other than journals

2003 Garrrod: netLibrary was the main supplier of ebooks to UK academic libraries. One factor affecting the take-up of ebooks in the UK was content and services have been developed by U

S companies for the US market.

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Related Literature － Australia

2001Nelson—experience of Victoria Univ. in a pilot consortium subscription of CAVAL VU: 12 campuses, 50,000 students. 3,000 faculty & staff. Decided to select high-use items, 20 reserve titles with a match on netLibrary. CAVAL: a consortium of VU libraries and the State Lib of Victoria.

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Related Literature － Australia (cont’d)

Author noted : “ people prefer access to selection ” and VU’s selection would not represent a critical mass of content, a meaningful collection to choose from or deliver statistical use reports from.

Number of titles

Titles not used

Total use-to-date

Titles most used

(economics)

VC 20 43% 406 23%

consortium

303 9% 3611 28%

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Related Literature－US: Case 1

2001 Dillon, pt.1—Experience of Univ. of Texas at Austin

E-Book Collections from netLibrary

Amigos: a large network of 750 libraries mainly from five southern states

TexShare: all Texas public and academic librariesUT System: 15 libraries ( 9 academic, 6 medical)

Amigos 11,000 titles

TexShare 5,000 titles 9,000 vols

UT System 5,300 titles

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Related Literature－US: Case 1 (cont’d) Univ. of Texas at Austin

E-book titles that have received at least one use

Collection and user group %

Titles in the global netLibrary collection which have been used by any library

77

Titles in the Amigo netLibrary collection used by any AMIGOS library

71

Titles in the statewide Texas State Library collection used by any library

54

Titles in the UT System netLibrary collection used by any UT System library

32

Titles in the Amigos netLibrary collection used by UT-Austin

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Titles in the UT system netLibrary collection used by UT-Austin

15

（ Dillon pt.1, 2001 ）

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Related Literature－US: Case 2

2001 Ramirez & Gyeszly—Experience of Texas A&M Univ

*a committee selected 15 subject areas historically tended to have high circulation

e-Book Collections

Amigos 10,000

TSLAC

(Texas State Library & Archives Commission)

9,000

TAMU 193*

( since Jan. 2001)

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Related Literature－US: Case 2 (cont’d) Texas A&M Univ

Authors noted : “ Surprisingly, the almost 200 specially selected e-books were not very heavily accessed by users. ” Also 9 of 15 subjects, 60% of selected categories, were never used during Feb.-May, 2001.

Accesses

Aug. 2000-Jan.2001

(180 days)

Feb.—May 2001

(90 days)

1,356 3,128

(incl. 61 of TAMU collection)

Total accesses 4,484

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Related Literature－US: Case 3

2003 Langston—Experience of Calf. State Univ. e-book Pilot Project Use by Collections (netLibrary)

Size of the User Group: CSU in the fall of 2001-- 23 campuses, 388,700 students, 22,00

0 faculty

Mar.-Dec.2001

Titles Accesses

Purchased

821 8,244 (47%)

Lease/Multi User 701 9,229 (53%)

Total 1,522 17,473

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Consortium Purchasing of E-Books

in Taiwan• TEBNET ( Taiwan E-Book Network)—

initial organizational meetings began in Apr. 2001, started to share e-books in May 2002, gained formal approval as a cooperatoive on Sept.15, 2004.

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Consortium Purchasing of E-Books

in Taiwan (cont’d) Members by Type of HE Institutes

Year

Type

Dec. 2002 Dec. 2003 Sept. 2004

Univ. 15 22 29

College 6 7 9

Jr. College 0 1 1

Total 21 30 39

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Usage of the First Shared Collection

*Additional 3,007 free titles could be accessed.

No. of Lib E-Book Titles E-Book Vols. Accesses

May-Dec.2002 21 21 6,156 7,128 15,272

Jan.-May 2003 21 6,156 7,128 （ 9,283 ）27,703

June-Dec. 200330 10,590 11,481

（ 18,420 ）

Jan.-Sept. 2004 30 10,590 11,481 43,365

Total 86,340

Accesses by All Members:

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Usage of the First Shared Collection (cont’d)

Rank Accesses Cum. %

1 14638 16.95%

2 8826 27.18%

3 8179 36.65%

4 7992 45.91%

5 7954 55.12%

----

14 1538 89.35%

----

26 307 98.75%

27 238 99.02%

28 187 99.24%

29 179 99.45%

30 121 99.59%

31(TEBNET Consortium

Collection)358 100.00%

Total 86340

Accesses by Individual Libraries: May 2002—Sept. 2004

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Usage of the First Shared Collection (cont’d)

Accesses by Subjects: May 2002—Sept. 2004

Accesses

% No.of E-Books % Ratio of Use

Business, Economics and Management

12253 14.19%

1981 18.71% 75.87%

Computers 10538 12.21%

708 6.69% 182.56%

Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing

10227 11.85%

625 5.90% 200.70%

Language and Linguistics

5702 6.60% 453 4.28% 154.39%

Chemistry 5072 5.87% 200 1.89% 311.05%

----

History: World and General

243 0.28% 64 0.60% 46.57%

Travel and Geography 235 0.27% 77 0.73% 37.43%

Sports and Recreation 191 0.22% 61 0.58% 38.40%

Sociology and Anthropology

182 0.21% 50 0.47% 44.65%

History: United States 50 0.06% 35 0.33% 17.52%

Other 211 0.24% 34 0.32% 76.12%

Total 86340 100.00%

10590 100.00% 100.00%

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Usage of the First Shared Collection (cont’d)

*A “ratio of use” is calculated using the percentage of total access and the percentage of titles in a subject area. (Langston 2003)

Ratio of Use Accesses % No.of E-Books

%

Chemistry 311.05% 5072 5.87% 200 1.89%

Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing

200.70% 10227 11.85% 625 5.90%

Library Science and Publishing

191.10% 2711 3.14% 174 1.64%

Biology and Life Sciences 188.22% 4312 4.99% 281 2.65%

Computers 182.56% 10538 12.21% 708 6.69%

----

Travel and Geography 37.43% 235 0.27% 77 0.73%

Political Science 37.20% 279 0.32% 92 0.87%

Home Economics 37.09% 505 0.58% 167 1.58%

Religion 33.84% 516 0.60% 187 1.77%

History: United States 17.52% 50 0.06% 35 0.33%

Other 76.12% 211 0.24% 34 0.32%

Total 100.00% 86340 100.00% 10590 100.00%

Accesses by Ratio of Use*: May 2002—Sept. 2004

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Discussion

1. Shared Collections of e-Books−Consortium Purchase Through TEBNET −Usage of e-Books−University and Junior College Libraries

2. E-Books Supplied by netLibrary−Collection Policy and Selection Process−US Market Oriented−Barriers

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Discussion (cont’d)

3. Statistics and Usage−Reliability−Usage of Print and e –Books−Subject Categories

4. A Critical Mass of E Content−Collection Size and Variations−A Critical Mass of Users−Quantities of Available e-books

5. Publishing e-Book

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The End Thank You!