Intended for a broad audience of librarians at many different kinds of institutions, Building and Managing E-Book Collections provides a strong starting place to get an e-book collection program underway. The manual is divided into three parts: Part I: E-Books in Context; Part II: E-Books in Detail; and Part III: E-Books in Practice. Beginning with a history of e-books and perspectives from both publishers and libraries on the market for e-books, Building and Managing E-Book Collections continues with an overview of collection management from selection to assessment, and concludes with six examples of successful implementations at a wide range of institutions.

Academic libraries—health science libraries in particular—are especially well represented by contributors. True to the manual’s intent to appeal to a broad audience, however, the how-to chapters address concerns that would be faced by any library. In addition, editor Richard Kaplan has assembled case studies from professionals with experience in public libraries, school libraries, and publishing.

Part I: E-Books in Context sets the stage. Although e-books are no longer newcomers to library collections, their business models, workflows, and service models are in flux. The relationship between libraries, publishers, and patrons in the ecology of e-books remains unsettled. Nadia J. Lalla in chapter 3, “E-Book Publishing—The View from the Library,” offers a framework through which all of the chapters that followed may be considered:

As soon as the decision is made to purchase books in digital format for a library, a myriad of decisions must be made. Should e-books be purchased via a single exclusive publisher or a third-party vendor? What format will the e-book have? On which e-book platform will it appear? How should libraries acquire e-books? The answers to these questions can unexpectedly shape a library’s collections and its future decisions regarding the funding of those collections. (23)

In a period of ongoing transition, collection management decisions must be made with a long view.

Part II: E-Books in Detail tackles pragmatic questions regarding the specific collection management activities of selecting, licensing, budgeting, cataloging, and assessing e-book collections. In addition, an entire chapter focuses on best practices for e-book collection management in public libraries. As a whole, this section presents the meat of the manual, that is, the chapters that will be most thumbed through over time. One topic that may have deserved its own chapter in the second section is the long-term preservation of e-books acquired in perpetuity, as opposed to those acquired by lease, since e-books present unique digital preservation concerns. Additionally, if the order of the chapters roughly suggests a sequence of activities for managing e-book collections—selection, license negotiation, budgeting, cataloging, assessment—it would be preferable to consider first rather than last. Overall, however, the how-to chapters in this section frame and address many crucial questions: To what extent are the activities required for managing e-books comparable to the activities required for managing other e-resources? How can institutions determine which user access model (e.g. patron-driven acquisition or pay-per-view) best meets their needs? How can institutions choose among the array of e-reader devices? What are common characteristics of e-book subscription packages? How can libraries re-allocate funds to support e-book collection development? How do acquisition models for e-books constrain cataloging decisions? In a tough budgetary climate, how can libraries effectively assess purchasing decisions? This section addresses these questions and many others.

Part III: E-Books in Practice presents six case studies ranging from eliminating paper books in a school library to circulating e-readers and changing staff roles to fit the purpose of managing e-book collections. While this section offers some of the most compelling chapters because they situate e-books so firmly within communities of users, this section provides too many success stories. For an individual or institution working to build an e-book collection from the ground up, reflective accounts or rigorous assessments of failed efforts may in fact afford richer lessons learned than do unmitigated success stories. “E-Books in a High School Library—Cushing Academy” contributed by Tom Corbett stands out as an exception. Corbett acknowledged that in one respect thoughtfully made decisions did not yield the hoped-for results. Library staff of Cushing Academy believed that a bold move to largely replace paper books with e-books would enable their library to better perform both roles of the school library: support of research and support of reading. Despite thoughtful requirements analysis and selection of vendors for both patron-driven acquisition of research content and federated search across e-books, journals, and encyclopedias, use of e-books in support of the library’s research role disappointed. Far from being disheartening, the difference between expectations and results underscores the ongoing nature of building e-book collections through continual assessment, skills acquisition, and planning.

For those beginning to work with e-books, Building and Managing E-Book Collections frames the essential questions and provides valuable guidance for determining which solutions will suit an institution’s particular context. With this guidance, libraries can aim to make collection management decisions with a long view during a continuing period of flux.