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ebooks [2021/06/16 17:32]
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ebooks [2022/08/14 14:29]
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 ====== NEWS ====== ====== NEWS ======
  
 +===== Where next for the e-textbook market? =====
 +
 +**[[https://​www.researchinformation.info/​analysis-opinion/​there-systemic-problem-ebooks|Is there a systemic problem with ebooks?]]**
 +
 +James Gray. Research Information. 23 May 2022.
 +
 +The main concern librarians share with me is that buying a set number of eTextbook licenses, restricted to a single person, that expire after a year, is a lot more expensive than buying paper copies that can be re-used on a bookshelf. Similarly, students don’t always understand some of the restrictions on digital content, considering digital, by its very nature, as synonymous with quick and easy access. Students expect seamless online access to their course content that is both fair and affordable – and, ideally, free.
 +
 +Meanwhile, the primary issue for academic publishers is they can only continue to exist if they find a way to sell their intellectual property digitally for a price that covers their costs.
 +
 +\\
 +**[[https://​wonkhe.com/​blogs/​where-next-for-the-e-textbook-market/​|Where next for the e-textbook market]]?**
 +
 +Price rises, changes in models, changes in student demand - the textbook market is still not working well. James Gray, Libby Homer, and Rod Bristow ask what will come next. Wonkhe 6 December 2021\\
 +[NOTE: This article was published in association with Kortext. The authors of this piece spoke at at [[https://​www.kortext.com/​blog/​kortext-winter-webinar-2021/​|Kortext’s “Winter Webinar”]] on 8 December.
 +
 +Extracts from the article:
 +
 +**James Gray, Kortext**: There’s broad agreement that the current digital textbook market is not working. It’s impossible to argue that huge price increases or multiple subscriptions are sustainable,​ or that models of procurement and collection development designed in a hard copy world will work when more and more libraries are moving to digital first strategies.
 +
 +**Libby Homer, Anglia Ruskin University: **And longer term there are more ambitious ideas in play. Driven in part by open access mandates around monographs, university presses are once again becoming major players – many providers are now publishing their own textbooks, and some of these are open access. This has also sparked conversations with academics – the people who write textbooks – about different approaches to their rights as authors.
 +
 +**Rod Bristow, formerly of Pearson: **At the same time, many students will continue to take control of their own learning and continue to buy resources they need to support it, themselves. The more that can be provided centrally the better, but I think student purchase will always be a part of the model, even alongside provider-level deals on e-resources.
 ===== Campaign to investigate the academic ebook market ===== ===== Campaign to investigate the academic ebook market =====
 +
 +from the **[[https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​|campaign to investigate the academic ebook market**]]**website\\
 +[[https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​|https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​]]
 +
 +[[https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​resources/​|Background reading]] (From the //campaign to investigate the academic ebook market// website (see above)\\
 +"This reading list provides some context to the ebook crisis in the UK and further afield"​
 +
 +**[[https://​www.jisc.ac.uk/​news/​joint-statement-on-access-to-e-book-and-e-textbook-content-06-oct-2021|Joint statement on access to e-book and e-textbook content]]**6 October 2021
 +
 +Extract from the statement: "​Together with other representatives and sector bodies, Jisc has pledged to help students and teachers in UK higher and further education to gain equitable and sustainable access to e-books, e-textbooks and related teaching content.
 +
 +Economic and technological changes in the current publishing market have led to libraries being increasingly excluded from, or priced out of, providing e-books and e-textbooks for students and library users. Many of the models and fees charged by publishers have either become prohibitively expensive, or libraries are no longer permitted to purchase these titles at all, creating an unsustainable situation"​
  
 [[https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​|Campaigntoinvestigatetheacademicebookmarket]] " <font 11pt/​Calibri,​sans-serif;;​inherit;;​inherit>​We are a group of academic librarians, researchers and university lecturers who have compiled an open letter asking the UK government to urgently investigate the academic publishing industry over its ebook pricing and licensing practices.The current situation is not working and it needs to change. Librarians are increasingly unable to provide the resources students, lecturers and researchers need."</​font>​ [[https://​academicebookinvestigation.org/​|Campaigntoinvestigatetheacademicebookmarket]] " <font 11pt/​Calibri,​sans-serif;;​inherit;;​inherit>​We are a group of academic librarians, researchers and university lecturers who have compiled an open letter asking the UK government to urgently investigate the academic publishing industry over its ebook pricing and licensing practices.The current situation is not working and it needs to change. Librarians are increasingly unable to provide the resources students, lecturers and researchers need."</​font>​
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 However, these issues are not new. The pandemic has brought the lack of availability of ebooks for institutional access, and the astronomical prices and restrictive licences under which those which are available can be procured, into sharp focus, but librarians have been dealing with this situation for a long time. Dialogue with publishers has been attempted, but it went nowhere useful. The investigation route was not a knee-jerk reaction to being unable to obtain the resources that we need for our students; it was the only option that those of us who set up the campaign could see remaining. However, these issues are not new. The pandemic has brought the lack of availability of ebooks for institutional access, and the astronomical prices and restrictive licences under which those which are available can be procured, into sharp focus, but librarians have been dealing with this situation for a long time. Dialogue with publishers has been attempted, but it went nowhere useful. The investigation route was not a knee-jerk reaction to being unable to obtain the resources that we need for our students; it was the only option that those of us who set up the campaign could see remaining.
 +
 +Anderson, J., Ayris, P., White, B. (2021) [[https://​blogs.lse.ac.uk/​impactofsocialsciences/​2021/​03/​17/​e-textbooks-scandal-or-market-imperative/​|E-Textbooks – scandal or market imperative?​]] LSE Impact. 17.03.21\\
 +UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship (2021) On Monday 15th March 2021, the UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship hosted a webinar in conjunction with Copyright4Knowledge that aimed to examine the acute difficulties for higher education and public libraries caused by publishers’ pricing and licensing practices and discuss some possible solutions.
 +
 +Ebooks: [[https://​blogs.ucl.ac.uk/​open-access/​2021/​03/​17/​ebooks-webinar/​|Scandal or Market Economics webinar – summary and links]]. Open@UCL. 15.03.21
 +
 +\\
 +Fazackerley,​ A. (2021) [[https://​www.theguardian.com/​education/​2021/​jan/​29/​price-gouging-from-covid-student-ebooks-costing-up-to-500-more-than-in-print|'​Price gouging from Covid':​ student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print]]. The Guardian. 29.1.21
  
 ====== Ebooks in HE : Overview ====== ====== Ebooks in HE : Overview ======
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 ==== Institution as e-textbook publisher ==== ==== Institution as e-textbook publisher ====
 +
 +[[https://​insights.uksg.org/​articles/​10.1629/​uksg.427/​print/​|Open textbooks – an untapped opportunity for universities colleges and schools]]. Insights. UKSG May 2018 [[https://​insights.uksg.org/​articles/​10.1629/​uksg.427/​print/​|https://​insights.uksg.org/​articles/​10.1629/​uksg.427/​print/​]]
 +
 +From the artcile: "The pilot phase of the UK Open Textbook project reached completion in April 2018. This article discusses the project, what open textbooks are, and why they are an untapped opportunity for universities,​ colleges and schools. The North American models of open textbook creation and uptake (adoption) are designed to help reduce university student financial worries and enhance learning opportunities,​ and provide much-needed resources for schools (or the K12 system in the US and Canada). The ability to repurpose books leads to innovative and engaging pedagogies including students as co-authors. Yet in the UK, the level of discussion and awareness of the opportunities afforded by open textbooks, and the existence of a small number of UK initiatives,​ is poor."
 +
 +"Given that many parts of the UK education sector are experiencing a textbook crisis, and given the levels of student debt, it is surprising that open textbooks have gained little traction here, and that they are entirely absent from government policy. ‘The UK needs to make a strategic response to the 2017 Ljubljana OER Action Plan set out by UNESCO’ to make publicly funded educational resources available to improve the learning experience for all."
  
 [[https://​www.jisc.ac.uk/​guides/​institution-as-e-textbook-publisher-toolkit|Institution as e-textbook publisher toolkit]] (Jisc) [[https://​www.jisc.ac.uk/​guides/​institution-as-e-textbook-publisher-toolkit|Institution as e-textbook publisher toolkit]] (Jisc)
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 The project, developed in direct response to the unsustainable models and high price of e-textbooks being made available to institutions,​ has been exploring alternative ways to create learning materials for students.Lara Speicher from UCL Press explains that: “Textbooks are very expensive for students to buy on top of their fees and living expenses, and buying large numbers of print textbooks is increasingly challenging for squeezed library budgets. And now these issues are starting to bite as textbook sales are in decline”.There are now clear signs that an alternative approach is underway. In the US, OpenStax, developed by Rice University, is an innovative open access textbook platform and SUNY Open Textbooks, developed by the State University of New York Libraries and launched in 2012 has published over 20 textbooks with more forthcoming. The latter is very much a community project and it is hoped that the outcomes of the institution as e-textbook will kickstart a similar approach in the UK leading to fresh approaches and sustainable models textbook publishing.Furthermore,​ the advent of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) provides additional incentive for HEIs to raise the topic of institutionally produced textbooks higher on the agenda. The project, developed in direct response to the unsustainable models and high price of e-textbooks being made available to institutions,​ has been exploring alternative ways to create learning materials for students.Lara Speicher from UCL Press explains that: “Textbooks are very expensive for students to buy on top of their fees and living expenses, and buying large numbers of print textbooks is increasingly challenging for squeezed library budgets. And now these issues are starting to bite as textbook sales are in decline”.There are now clear signs that an alternative approach is underway. In the US, OpenStax, developed by Rice University, is an innovative open access textbook platform and SUNY Open Textbooks, developed by the State University of New York Libraries and launched in 2012 has published over 20 textbooks with more forthcoming. The latter is very much a community project and it is hoped that the outcomes of the institution as e-textbook will kickstart a similar approach in the UK leading to fresh approaches and sustainable models textbook publishing.Furthermore,​ the advent of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) provides additional incentive for HEIs to raise the topic of institutionally produced textbooks higher on the agenda.
 +
 +==== Other resources ====
 +
 +Opening textbooks. By David Kernohan & Vivien Rolfe. Wonkhe Ltd [Blog]. 8 December 2017 [[http://​wonkhe.com/​blogs/​textbooks-a-tipping-point/​|http://​wonkhe.com/​blogs/​textbooks-a-tipping-point/​]]
 +
 +The direct library supply of individual textbooks to students: examining the value proposition. By Dominic Broadhurst. Information and Learning Science, vol 118, no. 11/12, pp. 629-641. 2017 DOI: 10.1108/​ILS-07- 2017-0072 [[http://​man.ac.uk/​VEpn4p|http://​man.ac.uk/​VEpn4p]]
 +
 +UK Open Textbook project: [[http://​ukopentextbooks.org/​about/​|http://​ukopentextbooks.org/​about/​]]
  
 ====== Open Access Ebooks ====== ====== Open Access Ebooks ======
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   * [[http://​www.oapen.org/​|OAPEN Library]]   * [[http://​www.oapen.org/​|OAPEN Library]]
- - a central repository for hosting and disseminating OA books+ 
 +- a central repository for hosting and disseminating OA books 
   * [[http://​oabooks-toolkit.org/​|OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit]]   * [[http://​oabooks-toolkit.org/​|OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit]]
- - a toolkit on OA book publishing for authors+ 
 +- a toolkit on OA book publishing for authors 
   * [[https://​doabooks.org/​|Directory of Open Access Books]]   * [[https://​doabooks.org/​|Directory of Open Access Books]]
- - a discovery service indexing OA books, in partnership with [[https://​www.openedition.org/​|OpenEdition]]+ 
 +- a discovery service indexing OA books, in partnership with [[https://​www.openedition.org/​|OpenEdition]]
  
 OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) was developed as a 30-month targeted project co-funded by the EU in its eContentplus-program (2008-2010). The goal of the project was to achieve a sustainable publication model for academic books in humanities and social sciences and to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research in Europe. After the close of the project, OAPEN continued its activities as a foundation. OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) was developed as a 30-month targeted project co-funded by the EU in its eContentplus-program (2008-2010). The goal of the project was to achieve a sustainable publication model for academic books in humanities and social sciences and to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research in Europe. After the close of the project, OAPEN continued its activities as a foundation.
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 OAPEN Foundation was established by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the University of Leiden (UL), the University library of Utrecht University (UU), the Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and Amsterdam University Press (AUP). OAPEN Foundation was established by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the University of Leiden (UL), the University library of Utrecht University (UU), the Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and Amsterdam University Press (AUP).
  
-====== Projects ​======+==== Projects ====
  
 OAPEN is involved in various initiatives for open access books: OAPEN is involved in various initiatives for open access books:
  
-  * **[[https://​openaccessbooksnetwork.hcommons.org/​|Open Access Books Network (OABN)**]]** - OAPEN is one of the coordinators supporting the OABN - a space for passionate conversations about open access books, creating an online community around open access books. +  * **[[https://​openaccessbooksnetwork.hcommons.org/​|Open Access Books Network (OABN)**]]** ​ - OAPEN is one of the coordinators supporting the OABN - a space for passionate conversations about open access books, creating an online community around open access books. 
-  * **[[https://​www.copim.ac.uk/​|Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)**]]** - OAPEN participates in the COPIM partnership,​ building community-owned,​ open systems and infrastructures to enable open access book publishing to flourish. +  * **[[https://​www.copim.ac.uk/​|Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)**]]** ​ - OAPEN participates in the COPIM partnership,​ building community-owned,​ open systems and infrastructures to enable open access book publishing to flourish. 
-  * **[[https://​educopia.org/​data_trust/​|Open Access eBook Usage (OAeBU) Data Trust pilot project**]]** - OAPEN serves on the Advisory Board for the (OAeBU) Data Trust pilot project. Participating in the development and testing of infrastructure,​ policy and governance models to support a diverse, global data trust for usage data on open access monographs. +  * **[[https://​educopia.org/​data_trust/​|Open Access eBook Usage (OAeBU) Data Trust pilot project**]]** ​ - OAPEN serves on the Advisory Board for the (OAeBU) Data Trust pilot project. Participating in the development and testing of infrastructure,​ policy and governance models to support a diverse, global data trust for usage data on open access monographs. 
-  * **[[https://​scelc.libguides.com/​SCELC-OAPEN|SCELC & OAPEN Pilot Project**]]** - SCELC and OAPEN collaborate through this pilot project in an effort to amplify the usage of open access (OA) resources in SCELC member libraries.+  * **[[https://​scelc.libguides.com/​SCELC-OAPEN|SCELC & OAPEN Pilot Project**]]** ​ - SCELC and OAPEN collaborate through this pilot project in an effort to amplify the usage of open access (OA) resources in SCELC member libraries
 +====   ​==== 
 + 
 +==== Open Access Ebook initiatives ==== 
 + 
 + \\ 
 +There are not a whole lot of OA ebook initiatives that are actively seeking funding through crowdfunding,​ consortial, or membership models just yet. But more are coming! The following are the existing programs . Make note that some of these are more US-based than others, 
 + 
 +Central European University Press Opening the Future \\ 
 +Knowledge Unlatched \\ 
 +Language Science Press \\ 
 +Liverpool University Press Opening the Future \\ 
 +Luminos \\ 
 +MIT Press Direct to Open \\ 
 +Open Book Publishers \\ 
 +Punctum Books \\ 
 +TOME \\ 
 +University of Michigan Press Fund to Mission 
 + 
 +==== Open Access Textbooks ==== 
 + 
 +[[http://​ukopentextbooks.org/​about/​|UK Open Text-book project]] \\ 
 +"Open Textbooks have seen impressive growth and impact in the North American context, through providers and initiatives such as OpenStax, the Open Textbook Network, BC Campus, and Lumen Learning. With the exception of Siyavula in South Africa however, the open textbook model has largely been restricted to North America.. Whether this is a result of particular contextual dependencies (such as the relative cost of textbooks) or because this is where the funding and interest has been focused is as yet unknown. The aim of this project then is to test the transferability of this model to a new context, namely that of the UK. Our overarching research question is: 
 + 
 +What is the viability of introducing open textbooks in UK higher education through the testing of two proposed models: OpenStax and OpenTextbook Network approaches?​ 
 + 
 +=== Resources page \\ http://​ukopentextbooks.org/​resources/​ === 
 + 
 +====== Controlled Digital Lending ====== 
 + 
 + \\ [[https://​www.ifla.org/​publications/​node/​93954|IFLA Statement on Controlled Digital Lending]] June 2021 
 + 
 +==== What is CDL? ==== 
 + 
 +CDL in the context of book lending promotes the idea that libraries are – or should be – able to lend out digitised copies of works in their collections on a strict owned-to-loaned ratio[. It applies to the lending of digital copies of in-copyright works, given that those already in the public domain (i.e. no longer subject to economic rights) can already be digitised and made freely available. This lending, crucially, is ‘controlled’ through the use of technological protection measures, which prevent illicit copying and limit the length of loan periods. In effect, it gives libraries a choice between digital and physical formats in how to give access to works in their collection. 
 + 
 +Crucially, CDL is based on exceptions and limitations or “user rights” in copyright law, in contrast to market-based licensing solutions. In the United States it has been justified, in an article by David Hansen and Kyle Courtney, under the legal doctrine of fair use. The authors assert that digitisation and lending of an electronic copy by libraries is permitted after the exhaustion of rights following the first sale of the physical copy, as long as the total number of copies in circulation (physical and digital combined) does not exceed the number owned by the library, and each physical copy is withheld from public access for as long as a corresponding digital copy is on loan. There have also been moves to clarify the legal status of eLending in Europe, where the European Court of Justice has found that libraries are permitted to lend not just paper books but eBooks under existing copyright law.
  
  
ebooks.txt · Last modified: 2024/03/06 04:33 by paul