Transcript The VLE as a Transformational Technology

Business Models for EBooks
A Look into the Future
David Ball
UKSG Conference 2007
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
Summary
• Digital natives
• Current student use of electronic
resources
• The new ecology - virtual learning
environments (VLEs)
• Outcomes of the SUPC tender
investigations
• Where do we go from here?
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
2
The Digital Natives
The average 21-year-old has:
• Spent 5,000 hours video-gaming
• Sent 250,000 emails/messages
• Spent 10,000 hours on a mobile
‘phone
• Spent 3,000 hours online
“ Their preference is for sharing, staying connected,
instantaneity, multi-tasking, assembling random
information into patterns, and using technology in
new ways.” - Marc Prensky
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
3
The Digital Immigrants
Are less likely to have:
• An iPod or equivalent
• Posted material on the web
• Created a blog or profile on MySpace
• Downloaded content such as music,
film
• Taken a picture with a mobile ‘phone
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
4
Student Use of E-Resources
 Tenopir’s survey of surveys shows drivers:
– Young users inhabiting electronic world
– Convenience – desk top, speed, save/print
 Health science library usage:
 28,000 full text downloads; 1800 uses of print
(Morse and Clintworth)
 Bournemouth University:
– 128% rise in full-text downloads over 4 years
– Heavy undergraduate use of journal articles
– 72% of nursing students’ last access from home
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
5
Bournemouth E-Journal
Statistics
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
6
Bournemouth E-Book Statistics:
Ebrary Aug 2006 – Mar 2007
Logins
Book views
Titles viewed
Pages viewed
Pages copied/printed
24,121
38,611
9893
476,102
26,789
Background: Academic Complete
Collection of ca. 38k titles, not in
OPAC
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
7
Bournemouth E-Books Statistics:
Lessons
• 1.6 book views per login – probably
2-2.5 allowing for null searches?
• 20 pages viewed per login – probably
more allowing for null searches
• 1.1 pages copied/printed per login
• Over 10% of book issues
• Killer statistic: 26% of titles have
been viewed – not in OPAC, not on
reading lists
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
8
Recent US Research on
Undergraduate Usage of E-books
• Students prefer e-journal articles to ebooks – shorter
• Key factor is electronic availability,
not publication type
• Students read e-books very
selectively, not cover to cover
• Students are unfamiliar with the
OPAC, preferring the web
(Hernon et al.)
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
9
Memo to Publishers
If your content is not available
electronically students won’t use it,
much less buy it. If students are not
using hard copy, libraries will not buy
it.
“No reading list should have more than
two titles on it. Learning is problem/
project/work based.” – new head of
business school
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
10
Virtual Learning Environments
“The components in which learners and tutors
participate in ‘online’ interactions of
various kinds, including online learning”
• Controlled access to curriculum
• Tracking student activity and
achievement
• Support of on-line learning
• Communication between the learner, the
tutor and others
• Links to other administrative systems
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
11
VLE as a Transformational
Technology
• Digital natives
• Digital learning environment
• Interactions with lecturers, other learners
and administrators will be increasingly by
electronic means
• Core learning resources created by lecturers
will be available through VLE
• Students’ expectation will be for all
learning resources to be so
• MyBU
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
12
Integrating into the VLE - 1
Pathways to information:
• VLE as one-stop-shop
• Use of library catalogues/portals will
decline
• Embed/link to resources at point of need
• Encourage use of wide variety of resources
• Re-engineer information architecture
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
13
Integrating into the VLE - 2
Interaction with students:
• Exploit VLE functionality and
structures
• Integrate into courses, units at point of
need
• Use quizzes, discussion boards
• Virtual classroom for remote students
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
14
The Position Today
• Existing heavy use of e-journals by
undergraduates
• Electronic medium the norm for
students’ social and leisure pursuits
• Electronic medium becoming primary
in HE
• Need for e-book content
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
15
E-Books: Problems and
Obstacles
• Lack of a clear open standard for operating
systems;
• Fears about the protection of content and
the rights of the content owner in the
context of giving users flexibility;
• Lack of appropriate content in suitable
quantities;
• Pricing of titles, software and hardware;
• Lack of integration into the general market
for books. (Herther)
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
16
SUPC E-Books Tender
• Developing market place
• Virtual Learning Environments
• Fluid business models
− Mimic hard-copy business models
− Trend towards bundling/Big Deal
• Avoid what happened with e-journals
− Publishers determined business models
− Price tied to historical hard-copy spend
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
17
Preparing the Specification
Aim to provide agreements that:
•
•
•
•
Were innovative and flexible
Exploited the electronic medium fully
Focused on users’ needs not libraries’
Encouraged the addition of library-defined
content
Two distinct requirements:
• Requirement A – a hosted e-book service from
which institutions can purchase or subscribe to
individual titles
• Requirement B – a hosted e-book service of
content that is specified by the institutions
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
18
List Price?
• The 3 general aggregators offer
pricing based on publisher’s list price
• 1190 common titles from 4 publishers
were compared
• Many titles have no common list price
in e-form
• Average e-book price for the common
titles varied from $99.9 to $102.2, a
spread of 2.3%
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
19
Prices: Hard Copy vs. E
• One aggregator, offering outright
purchase and only 1 simultaneous
user, allowing for discounts and VAT:
− E-book:
− Hard copy:
155% of list price
85% of list price
• E-book is 82% more expensive
• Book budget buys 45% less e-books
than hard-copy books
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
20
Relative Pricing (Requirement A)
• Purchase of 1500 titles
− Least expensive 63% of most expensive
• Subscription over 3 years to 1500 titles
− Least expensive a fraction of most
expensive
• Most expensive allows only single-user
access
• Other models: one concurrent user (hard
copy); up to ca.320 accesses to title each
year
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
21
Bespoke Subject Collections
(Requirement B)
• First subject – nursing; others to be
determined
• Core lists of 200 and 600 titles prepared by
4 universities and the Royal College of
Nursing
• Only general aggregators interested
• Maximum of 13% available from any one
• Aggregators have agreements with some of
main publishers
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
22
E-Textbooks?
• Obvious advantages for libraries: no
multiple copies or SLCs, staff savings
• BUT 80% of publishers’ textbook
revenue is from individuals - not
available
• How many list titles are textbooks;
how many are recommended reading?
• Malign influence of US textbookbased reaching?
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
23
Contract Award
• Requirement A: Ebrary and Proquest
Safari
− Offer innovative models, value for
money, flexibility and academic content
of interest to members
− Exploit electronic medium in terms of
granularity and multi-user access
• Requirement B: Ebrary
− Flexibility and willingness to work
openly
− Disappointing progress
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
24
JISC E-books Observatory
Project
• 3-year project 2007-2009
• License collections relevant to courses
in business, engineering, medicine,
media
• Make collections available from Sept
07 to Sept 09
• Deep log analysis Jan-Dec 2008
(See http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/)
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
25
Future Business Models
Publishers and intermediaries (incl. libraries)
have to provide what the end-user wants:
• Electronic, electronic, electronic
• Focused on user’s perceptions and culture
• Focused on content not publication type
• Enabling personalisation
• Single easy interface for search and
retrieval
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
26
Future Business Models/2
• Models must be acceptable to and
viable for publishers, intermediaries
and end-users
• Models must be adjusted to VLEs as
the predominant means of delivery
• Boundaries will shift – e.g. textbooks
to course cartridges
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
27
Books Were Us
“When simple change becomes
transformational change, the desire for
continuity becomes a dysfunctional
mirage” - The Mirage of Continuity (1999)
Hawkins & Battin
“To remain what it is, the library must change
. . . if it does not change, it will not remain
what it is” - David Penniman, University at
Buffalo
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
28
But what do
you think?
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
References
R. Everett MLEs and VLEs explained, London, JISC, (2002).
Available at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=mle_briefings_1
P. Hernon et al. “E-book Use by Students: undergraduates in
economics, literature and nurisng”, Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 33 (1), pp. 3-13 (2007)
N.K. Herther. “The E-book Industry Today: a bumpy road becomes
an evolutionary path to market maturity”, The Electronic
Library, 23(1), pp. 45-53, (2005).
D.H. Morse, W.A. Clintworth. “Comparing Patterns of Print and
Electronic Journal Use in an Academic Health Science Library”,
Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 28, (2000).
Available at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00fall/refereed.html
C. Tenopir. Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: an
overview and analysis of recent research studies, Washington,
Council on Library and Information Resources, (2003).
Available at:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
30