New partnership will help libraries make ebook holdings more visible, accessible through WorldCat

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 24, 2010—OCLC and ebrary, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, are working together to add records for the ebrary ebook catalog to WorldCat, the world’s most comprehensive database for discovery of library resources.
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In the spirit of promoting terrific ideas, we’d like to recommend Thursday’s #followthereader twitter chat, which will be focused on how public libraries can increase ebook adoption. Visit the Follow the Reader blog to get a better sense of the broad questions this twitter chat is intended to address, as well as links to background info (a white paper from OverDrive and a Power Point featuring an IFLA-sponsored survey).

The Thursday, June 10 chat, scheduled from 4-5 PM ET, will feature guest Bobbi Newman, otherwise known as @librarianbyday (http://librarianbyday.net/), who is a librarian, teacher, techno geek, and video game junkie who is dedicated to helping libraries find their place in the digital age.

For directions on joining the conversation, visit Follow the Reader.

Cambridge Histories Online offers over 250 volumes categorized under 15 subject areas for comprehensive and authoritative historical information. Learn more about this collection of award-winning titles from Cambridge University Press at http://histories.cambridge.org/public_home.

Special Savings Through June 2010
For 4-year academic institutions with less than 2500 FTE and 2-year colleges of any size, the following special pricing for Cambridge Histories Online remains available through June 2010: $3600 one-time purchase price with $400 annual fee beginning in year two for hosting and new content.

This special one-time purchase price is 50% of the normal Nylink-discounted rate at the lowest pricing tier. The $400 ongoing annual fee is also discounted greatly from the usual $750 fee.

Discounted pricing on CHO is always available through Nylink for academic institutions of all sizes.

Contact Nylink at services@nylink.org to confirm pricing for your academic library.

Since I’ve been at Nylink,  I’ve had the opportunity to observe, albeit sometimes at a distance, a bafflingly combative dynamic between librarians and publishers. The reader-slash-patron is a peripheral figure in this battle, a mystical idiot savant who is capable of harvesting and redistributing vast amounts of copyrighted data via the internet, thereby single-handedly destroying the publishing industry, while simultaneously helplessly prostrate before the intricacies of the OPAC.

I used to work on building shared netLibrary collections, back when netLibrary was spelled with a small “n” and large “L”. Back then, Nylink hand-selected each title through a cumbersome, spreadsheet-and-highlighter-dependent process. There weren’t that many titles available through netLibrary, and some of the ones we wanted most were not available for shared collections because publishers feared that if the libraries (and by extension their patrons) sharing our collection already had access to the title in electronic form, they would hesitate to acquire it for themselves. It was the domino theory for books.

Our statistics didn’t support this assumption, but the future was terrifying enough that our tortuous negotiations usually came to the same predictable end, a firm “no thank you” (or less polite response) from the publisher, and a shrug of the shoulders from netLibrary.

I mention that only to bring up a few very articulate blog posts and articles regarding the future of books and the role of publishers, libraries and distribution channels like Amazon and iTunes, from Library Journal Book Review Editor Heather McCormack, Cold Springs Harbor Library Information Services Manager Laura Gilbert, and New Yorker columnist Ken Auletta. I encourage you to read these yourself!

• A Librarian \ Walks into…Working the BEA (Publishers Weekly) by Lauren Gilbert
• Patrons Are Consumers, and Consumers Are Patrons; or, How Publishers Can Learn To Stop Worrying and Love Libraries Again (O’Reilly TOC)
• Publish or Perish: Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business? (newyorker.com)

With $313 million dollars in sales in 2009, eBook sales in the US overtook audiobook sales last year for the first time ever, according to data from the American Association of Publishers, which released yesterday its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. Overall sales of books in the US: $23.9 billion dollars, down 1.8% from last year. For more book statistics, see their website.

Encyclopedia of Africa, Oxford Companion to the Book, and Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome are the latest additions to Oxford Digital Reference Shelf (DRS). DRS e-books are purchased individually for a one-time purchase price with an ongoing annual hosting fee. Introductory pricing is available through March 31 for Africa and Greece and Rome, and through April 30 for Companion to the Book. 

To learn more about these and other DRS e-books, go to http://www.oxford-digitalreference.com/title_list, and sign up for a trial at https://ams.oup.com/user/drstrial.pfm.

Many ways to save on purchases of  Oxford Digital Reference Shelf e-books! In addition to introductory pricing for new titles, a Nylink discount is always available for the purchase of any DRS e-book. And, libraries that own the print edition of a DRS title can deduct 50% of the print list price off the e-book purchase price. Libraries that maintain a subscription to Oxford Reference Online (http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/intro) do not pay the annual hosting fees for any DRS titles they’ve purchased. And volume discounts are available if 7 or more DRS titles are purchased at the same time.

DRS purchase prices vary by e-book, with cost additionally determined by institution type and size, and eligibility for various discounts as described above. Please contact Nylink for a quote at services@nylink.org.

NetLibrary offers more than 140,000 PDF titles that are compatible with increasingly popular eBook readers, including all four Sony Digital Readers (PRS-300,505,600 and 700BC), as well as the COOL-ER. Soon NetLibrary expects to announce compatibility with even more eBook readers. Additionally, these titles can be downloaded to laptops and PCs for offline reading. An Adobe Content Server (ACS) license is required for downloading, and a one-year license is $350. Libraries can receive a complimentary ACS license with a purchase.

Lists or recommended (text-intensive PDF) content are available on TitleSelect, in the Special Offers section, under “Fiction Titles for Mobile and Offline Reading” and “Non-Fiction Titles for Mobile and Offline Reading” at http://extranet.netlibrary.com/titleselect/collection.asp?list_id=21.

More information is available from OCLC at their website: http://www.oclc.org/us/en/ebooks/go_portable/, or call 1-800-848-5800 and follow the prompts, or by e-mail at support@oclc.org .

OCLC offers you a way to boost your buying power and build your eBook collection. NetLibrary Shared eBook Collections include titles hand-picked by OCLC collection development librarians.

A shared collection is a great way to start or add to your eBook collection. You’ll gain access to hundreds of frontlist eBooks by combining your buying power with that of other participating libraries. And the great thing is, with continued participation and feedback from the membership, the collection keeps growing!

With the OCLC Shared Collections, you’ll benefit from:

• eBooks available 24/7 via the Internet. Allows users to self serve on any computer with Web access.
• Collections developed specifically for libraries like yours. Projected list of 1,000–1,500 titles gives you access to content from leading publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis and Facts on File.
• Real-time usage reports. Available anytime online.
• No physical inventory to manage. Check-outs and check-ins handled automatically.
• Full OCLC-MARC record sets. Yours at no extra cost.

Order now and save!

Order your collection by December 31, 2009 to take advantage of current low rates. Please contact us for details on this exceptional collection at 1-800-898-6252, ext. 3800 or www.oclc.org/info/sharedcollections

Sample Emerald Group Publishing’s business and management journals online for free and take advantage of a special offer for the Emerald Backfiles online collection available through May 31, 2009.

Journal of the Week

A good way to sample Emerald’s business and management journals is to take advantage of the Journal of the Week (JOTW) feature that provides free online access to two journals (current and archived issues) each week. Check it out at http://info.emeraldinsight.com/jotw/index.htm.

Emerald Backfiles Special Offer

The Emerald Backfiles online collection is a one-time purchase offering 120 journal titles with more than 68,000 articles in key management disciplines. The Backfiles can be used to complete and enhance a mature collection or provide an introduction to business and management research.

Visit the Emerald web site for features, benefits, frequently asked questions, and sample articles: http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/backfiles/index.htm.

Journal title list:
in PDF at http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/backfiles/pdf/backfiles_titles_list.pdf
or in Excel at http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/backfiles/pdf/backfiles_titles_list.xls

Academic pricing: $18,000 for the Backfiles if ordered by May 31, 2009 (a savings of 25% off the list price of $24,000). A two-payment option is also available with a total payment of $18,500. An annual hosting fee may also apply.

Other Emerald online products available at a discount through Nylink:

Emerald Management Xtra (http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/xtra/index.htm)
Emerald eBook Series (http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/ebookseries/index.htm)
Emerald Engineering (http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/engineering/index.htm).

Contact Nylink at services@nylink.org or 800-342-3353 for more information.