E-books: Access vs Ownership

Abstract

Over the past several years, e-book ownership has become the preferred acquisitions model, as opposed to subscription models. Vendors and aggregators offer many different models to help streamline and simplify acquiring e-books, including front-file purchases from the vendor, as well as demand-driven/patron-driven acquisitions (DDA/PDA) and a variety of evidence-based plans. With each purchase model, though, come different technical services workflows required to manage not only the plans, but coordinate the purchasing, cataloging, and holdings maintenance. One must also consider the unpredictable costs per year, though deposit accounts make it easier to budget and manage the cost. Subscription resources, however, provide one workflow as well as a known cost component. In addition to this, the maintenance of the collection, including additions, deletions, and weeding out-of-date resources, is handled by the vendor. This article will discuss the pros and cons of both purchase and subscription models (including acquisitions, cataloging, and maintenance) and present the argument that, for small technical services departments, perhaps subscription is a better model than ownership, when available.