E-books on demand@UCL

UCL Library Services is currently running a pilot project involving users in the acquisition of e-book content.

For a trial period, UCL students and staff will be able to read and download 1000s of extra e-books across a wide range of subjects. UCL Library Services will buy those used most often and add them to the existing collection.

June Hedges, Academic Support Manager said, "UCL Library Services already have access to over 14,000 e-book titles, but in our efforts to make sure we have all the books that you need, when you need them, we have been trialling new ways to buy e-books which effectively give the purchasing power to you, our library users.

Trialling access

UCL Library Services have been trialling two different methods of acquisition, Evidence Based Acquisition (EBA) and Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA). As a result UCL has access to all the books available via a particular publisher or e-book service and users get to decide which books are purchased.

June explains, "With PDA the library pays a lump sum up front and it gets spent as and when users download the books until the money runs out. With EBA you have access to everything for a set amount of time and at the end of that period the library uses the data collected to select and buy the most popular titles."

Currently UCL Library Services has access to everything in the Wiley Online Library  under the EBA model. While UCL IOE library is currently making approximately 850 additional ebooks in the area of education and social sciences available with Taylor and Francis under the same model. UCL Library Services will soon have access to ebooks via Jstor too.

For more information visit UCL Library Services.

June Hedges, Academic Support Manager, UCL Library Services