What made you want to trial the Digital Library?
A co-worker, also a business librarian, was the first to learn about the product. What attracted us to it was the business model and pricing structure. Specifically, the fact the publisher imposed no DRM restrictions, no limit on simultaneous usage, nor any limit on printing and downloading, all seemed very attractive. The average price per book was also very reasonable for an e-book package.
What prompted you to purchase it?
We liked what we saw during the trial. Our librarians were actively exploring a variety of e-book solutions, and business was one of the subject areas where the demand for e-books seemed strong. At the time, our University was in the throes of a multi-year budget crisis, from which we are only now emerging. As a result, we did not have much money to purchase new e-book packages. I particularly liked the publisher’s focus on topics of interest to undergraduate and master’s-level business students. Although most of the BEP authors are academics, their writing (for the most part) is very accessible and the subject focus is on practical, real-world business applications. The above-mentioned access/pricing model sealed the deal. The fact that Business Expert Press utilizes the ebrary e-book reader was a bonus, because we were already familiar with the software.
What’s your opinion of e-books in libraries today?
There is no question that e–books are here to stay. Our students are certainly comfortable with them and they undoubtedly prefer electronic access. Usage patterns also appear to be changing. In the past, I felt that our students tended to use e-books as reference tools for quick look-ups, brief facts, and convenient quotations, rather than reading entire chapters or [gasp] entire books. That behavior is clearly changing, and the Business Expert Press collections make it easy for students to interact with them as actual books.
Are professors using the library’s e-collections more frequently now? Have they been using Business Expert Press?
Faculty usage varies of course. Some have readily adopted e-books and relish the convenient access. One factor that helps with faculty is that we have loaded all of our e-titles into our Library Catalog, so faculty can’t help but stumble over them, and (I hope) will be tempted to try them. We also encourage our faculty to incorporate electronic books and articles into their course reserves and course management software. To be honest, we have not yet publicized the BEP collection because our ongoing budget problems prevented us from purchasing additional (more recent) titles. Now that we have turned the corner, we will be updating our BEP collection, at which time we will make the product more visible on our website and so on. I am happy to report that two of our faculty members are now BEP authors and they seem pleased with the experience.
Finally, although you didn’t ask, I have found Business Expert Press’s customer service to be both responsive and pleasant, which always counts for a lot in my book.
About Michael R. Lavin: Lavin is the Business/Management Librarian at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). He has been a business librarian for more than 30 years. He has also taught a graduate course on business information resources for many years. Mr. Lavin has published extensively in the field, including Business Information: How to Find It, How to Use It (Oryx Press) and Understanding the Census (Epoch Books). He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship. Mr. Lavin is a past recipient of ALA’s Gale Research Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship.
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