Investigating High-Cost Ebooks Purchasing Workflows to Support Course Reserves

Abstract

As academic libraries have increasingly shifted to purchasing ebooks that are licensed rather
than owned, and are more expensive than print books, challenges to the acquisition and
budgeting of textbooks for course reserves have increased. These challenges associated with online
textbooks impact how libraries approach initiatives to enhance student affordability. This three-year
study analyzes the usage data of high-cost (i.e., those costing more than $500) ebooks purchased as
course texts by the library. The analysis demonstrated that the number of titles and the overall cost
were relatively low. In contrast, the use of these ebooks was high (exceeding 200 uses per month),
especially compared with other ebooks the library had acquired to support curricular and research
needs. This data enabled the library to revise the acquisition process, removing the cost-based
approval step, which improved the acquisitions workflow and students’ access to titles.