Shaping a strategy for e-books An issues paper Hazel Woodward and Louise Edwards, September 2001
Contents 1. Introduction 2. Industry overview 3. Distribution and the role of intermediaries 4. Economic overview 5. Marketing strategy 6. Authoring 7. Technical overview 8. Standards 9. Preservation 10. Conclusions 11. Bibliography 12.
Appendix 1: List of publishers consulted
1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to set out some of the issues for the E-Books Working Group to consider when setting a strategy for the development of e-books within UK higher and further education. In summary, the objectives of the E-Books Working Group are: • •
To monitor the e-book industry worldwide and influence its development for the benefit of further and higher education in the UK; To secure cost-effective access to a comprehensive and relevant collection of electronic books for universities and colleges;
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To achieve sustainable economic models for electronic books;
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To assess the impact of new hardware and software, emerging e-book standards and digital rights;
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To encourage the option of electronic publication for authors whilst maintaining a realistic view of new technology;
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To take a balanced view of the role of e-books and understand how they can be integrated effectively into learning and research.
The term ‘e-books’ is defined broadly to include electronic reference works, monographs and textbooks. They may be delivered via the Web or a hand-held device.
A number of people in the e-book publishing industry have been consulted (see Appendix 1) and their views have been incorporated within this paper. Industry news, as well as in-depth articles and reports, have also been regularly reviewed. 2. Industry overview To chart the development of the e-book industry provides a complex and interesting mix of the traditional and the new. Many powerful players have entered the industry, not least Microsoft and Adobe. At the same time, the e-book business has experienced many of the fluctuations of the dot.com ‘revolution’: •
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Phase 1: Rapid expansion during the 1990s. NetLibrary, Questia and Ebrary were all established in the last years of the decade. Considerable venture capital spent on digitisation and fast growth of the workforce Phase 2: A sudden tightening of the capital markets, forcing many e-book companies to drastically reduce their overheads. The immediate impact was a significant drop in the workforce and a much slower pace at which books have been digitised Phase 3: Emphasis on the need to generate actual revenues by increased sales
2.1 Industry forecasts Industry forecasts for e-books have fluctuated markedly. Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) predicted a strong market for e-book content by 2005 and Forrester has forecast big rises within the same period, with a quarter of textbook sales going electronic. Consulting firm IDC foresaw fast growth in demand between 2000 and 2004. Jupiter has concluded that e-books will make up 6.5% of college textbook sales by 2005 whereas PricewaterhouseCooper predicts one-third of textbooks will be sold electronically in the US by 2004. On the question of the future of e-book aggregated services, Eduventures, a US consultancy, estimates the current market at $250 per annum and forecasts it to triple by 2004 to $850m. Eduventures predicts that market growth will not be quick enough, however, resulting in restructuring, corporate acquisition and, ultimately, failure for some. The emergence of a possible ‘winner’ in 2002 is indicated, along with the arrival of new players in the market. Success factors, based on Eduventure’s research, include extensive and exclusive content, integration with other online resources, a strong connection with the curriculum and the ability to tailor to end-user needs. 2.2 Publisher perspective The first of an annual survey of publishers on their changing perspectives of e-publishing has recently appeared. The vast majority of publishers reported that they are now involved in electronic books, either by dedicated hardware, print-on-demand or online delivery. Interestingly, a greater number of publishers are considering online delivery of books via the Web rather than for hand-held devices. Digitisation of backlists was considered to be a problem for publishers and only 4% of 61 respondents said that 100% of their content was digitised and in a readily-accessible digital library. The amount of content available in digital
form ranged from 5% of a publisher’s titles, to 100%. There was evidence that most new content is digitised as a matter of course. 3. Distribution and the role of intermediaries Publishers and intermediaries are re-thinking distribution channels for the electronic environment, ranging from a direct publisher-reader relationship to a complex chain involving many intermediaries. Many of the publishers interviewed for the annual survey on e-publishing expressed the view that online delivery would impact strongly on the existing supply chain.
3.1 Publisher direct Several publishers reported that would like to supply direct but are aware of the risks in taking on further distribution costs and digital rights management. There is a greater willingness to supply direct on self-contained products where there is a critical mass of material, such as a reference work or where a publisher has particular subject strength. Some publishers with a strong brand identity also seem keen to take this route to market. 3.2 Distribution companies A number of new electronic distribution companies have set up in business over the last few years, such as Lightning Source and Versaware. These ‘digital distributors’ build a repository of content and output it in a variety of formats. They may typically be responsible for preparing and maintaining electronic editions of a book or for handling e-book purchases directed via the publisher’s server. To date, books have been going through a labourintensive process of scanning, conversion, proofing and editing. Companies that started life as digitisation companies appear to be re-inventing themselves quickly and increasingly outsource digitisation processes, switching instead to the provision of added-value services such as maintaining asset stores of material, handling electronic distribution and payment. NetLibrary, which previously undertook its own conversion, has outsourced the operation and reduced its headcount significantly. Versaware, the main partner in Taylor & Francis’ digitisation plan, is reported in the press to be struggling. The main implication of digitisation and distribution changes is that customers will be able to purchase books online and access the electronic versions of books in many more ways that they have done in the past. Many new companies are offering storage of material, aggregation and marketing. Even small publishers, Pluto Press being a good example, are forming partnerships with these companies in order to make their books available online through a delivery platform. 3.3 Aggregator overview One of the biggest challenges for the aggregator is to select the right books to include in its database. Conversion rates vary between publishers, with anything from 100% to practically
no titles available in electronic format. The need to reduce costs means that aggregators such as NetLibrary have started charging for conversion, rather than undertaking it for free. There is greater selectivity all round in what is chosen for conversion. For this reason alone, JISC is unlikely to secure large discounts from aggregators that have incurred high conversion costs. The situation is improving. Publishers are now willing to provide aggregators with front-list titles, rather than older books. The current investment in digitisation will decline as books are automatically produced in an electronic format.
Business strategist Michael Porter (2001) has expressed his concern that the current trend for outsourcing and partnering tends to create a homogenous product, with no real distinctiveness between services. In this context, it will be interesting to see how e-book aggregators seek competitive advantage in the marketplace. Will they, for example, aim for exclusive content? Many of the aggregators, notably Ebrary and Questia, increasingly view their strategy in terms of ‘e-content’, building collections that comprise not just books, but journals and other digital material. 3.3.1 NetLibrary NetLibrary was one of the first aggregators of e-books, launching its first titles in 1998. The company was funded through venture capital and grew from 8 employees to 500 in a twoyear period. However, it has attracted insufficient revenue to maintain this level, reducing its staff by 200 and selling off its e-book software arm, Peanut Press, in order to concentrate on the library market. In April 2001 NetLibrary adopted the OEB standard, enabling it to reduce the resource dedicated to conversion processes and publishers will either have to pay for conversion themselves or deliver material to NetLibrary in OEB format. NetLibrary offers libraries the opportunity to buy individual titles or subject-based collections. A book is bought outright by the library and can be ‘borrowed’ by readers for browsing or downloading for a period of time determined by the library. NetLibrary themselves expect people to use their books as research sources, not read them in their entirety. As NetLibrary has been the first aggregator to arrive in the UK in force, there is expectation from the community of a JISC deal. However, although NetLibrary does offer discounts on large purchases, they are not significant. NetLibrary is reported to be developing alternate pricing models, such as term-lease and pay-per-view options. 3.3.2 Ebrary
Ebrary was founded by and very much shaped by the Warnock family, father and son. John Warnock was CEO and co-founder of Adobe. Ebrary uses Adobe’s pdf format to present documents in their original layout, minimising the need for investment in expensive conversion processes. Ebrary is funded by Pearson, Random House and McGraw-Hill. A range of deals has been struck with high-profile publishers. Ebrary recently announced a deal with Springer-Verlag, in addition to agreements with other major publishers such as Cambridge University Press and Palgrave. Major US university presses such as Yale, MIT and Stanford have also signed up. At around only 3,000 items in its current collection, Ebrary has taken a much more cautious approach to building its online library.
Ebrary has recently announced that it is expanding distribution through vertical collections available through a variety of Internet portals, e-learning providers and other Web sites. It has been able to build on its partnership with the four publishers, for example, distributing content via Pearson’s Learning Network site in the US. Ebrary wants to recreate the browsing experience of being in a library or bookstore, its model based on ‘read, then pay’, rather than ‘pay, then read’. Ebrary claims that this model will allow publishers to recoup some of the revenue lost to the photocopying industry. Copy costs are determined by the publisher and Ebrary offers deposit accounts from which small purchases are deducted by use of an Ebrary debit card. Ebrary will form partnerships and share revenues with libraries and other outlets. It has begun a period of consultation with the library community worldwide, but the real challenge is to make the model work in higher and further education without the administrative burden of a metering system. The obvious advantages of Ebrary centre on the flexibility of a pay-as-you-go model that only charges for material actually needed. 3.3.3 Questia Questia is the largest digitisation project in the world and today offers around 60,000 items (mostly e-books but not e-textbooks) in the humanities and social sciences. Core strengths include psychology, sociology and history. The Questia collection has been built around assignments on the first two years of the undergraduate core curriculum in the United States. All books have been converted to XML format and Questia has spent more than $100 million in venture capital. Like NetLibrary, Questia has recently cut back about half its workforce and reduced the pace at which material is being added. The company reports that it expects to be profitable in two years. The business model is a subscription one, aimed directly at the student. Questia will also negotiate with institutions in the purchase of user licences on behalf of students, with the option of building the cost into course fees. Questia is available at $9.95 per week or $149 per year. Although reportedly rising, the subscriber base remains low, despite a heavy marketing campaign in the US using consumer channels such as TV. Questia claims to be more than an online library, providing searching and notetaking facilities for students.
3.4 Print-on-demand In the annual survey of publishers, academic publishers were generally positive about the benefits of print-on-demand, the main concern being cost of the technology and quality of output. Several of the publishers consulted for this report also showed strong commitment to POD. Companies such as Lightning Source (now located in the UK) offer storage of a book in digital format, together with retrieval and printing as required. Such intermediaries provide services to booksellers like Amazon as well as to publishers.
One of the main advantages is to maintain low-selling books in print for a longer period. There has been talk of installing POD devices, high volume printers, in a number of outlets, including libraries and bookshops. Other writers emphasise the disadvantages of print-ondemand, particularly the cost and time of printing an entire book. Lynch (2001) believes print-on-demand will inevitably decline as people become familiar with e-book software. 3.5 Booksellers Booksellers have been slow to embrace e-books in the UK. In the US, there has been a greater level of activity and booksellers such as Barnes & Noble are promoting e-book content. Campus bookshops are highly dependent on textbook sales and in the last twelve months have started to put reading lists on the Web. Price competition has become a factor for student book sales, despite the convenience of local campus bookstores. New, ‘virtual’ booksellers have entered the market. Swotbooks.com is a good example of Internet syndication, the creation of vertical channels to market, recently forming a partnership with UCAS, the University and Colleges Admissions Service. Swotbooks have announced their intention to move into e-book supply in due course. 3.6 Library suppliers The role of library suppliers in the e-book market seems as yet unclear. Suppliers appear to be adopted a ‘wait and see’ policy, although several are acting as agents for aggregated products such as NetLibrary. The value-adding services offered within the printed world, such as supply, reporting, invoicing, discounts need to be reassessed within the e-book environment. 3.7 Managed learning environments (MLEs) A number of publishers and aggregators have signed partnerships with the providers of managed learning environments (MLEs), such as Blackboard and WebCT. 3.8 The DNER and e-book distribution
The NESLI evaluation (2000) highlighted the need for clarity in the roles and responsibilities of the main players in the distribution chain, not least that of the managing agent. Libraries also questioned the lack of choice over the interface for delivery of materials. There appear to be several options available to the DNER in facilitating access to e-books for the community: • •
To develop direct relationships with the publishers and access material through them; To develop relationships with one or more aggregators, working with them to shape a collection around UK needs;
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To develop a delivery platform for e-books within the UK education community itself or to form a partnership with an e-distribution company to host and deliver material;
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To form partnerships with other stakeholders in the distribution chain to facilitate access to content, for example, library suppliers and MLE vendors.
This will be a vital decision for the community and one on which users and librarians will need to be extensively involved.
4. Economic overview Lynch (2001) has urged that our thinking should not be dominated by the conventions and business models of print publishing. The Internet has created opportunities for selling content in a whole variety of ways, including bundling, site licensing, subscriptions, rentals and pay-per-view. It is also making micro-payments feasible. Lynch has outlined some of the main economic questions regarding e-books: • •
Can an e-book be loaned or given to someone else? Do you own an e-book or have access to it?
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Can you copy an e-book for private use?
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Do you obtain e-books on a pay-per-view basis or a perpetual licence to view?
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Are inter-library loan functions preserved?
There is recognition that electronic books will affect purchasing decisions and use between end users, libraries and booksellers. Libraries have provided an increasingly large number of textbooks, but with the potential inconvenience to end-users having to wait for access and with a limited amount of time for reading. Outright purchase by the end-user gives them the option of paying for speed and convenience. E-books have the potential to upset this balance, by giving end-users far easier and convenient access from the library. Publishers like Cavendish, worried about the potential threat to text sales, are considering models specifically for libraries, such as read-only, to encourage students to purchase the material
themselves. NetLibrary is another example of a model deliberately designed for library sales.
Actual pricing is still to be settled in the marketplace. Some e-books are being offered at prices slightly lower than the print, others are decidedly more expensive e.g. NetLibrary. Librarians have contrasted the list price + service charge from NetLibrary with the heavy discount available on a paperback book. Publishers reported that they had rejected deals with some intermediaries because of their demand for an ‘excessive’ share of the income. This has created an Interesting balance of power between publisher and distributor. At the same time, new digital rights management systems allow a range of accesses and pricing defined by the publisher.
There is general acceptance that some of the current models are interim. Clearly, the DNER should not get itself locked into an economic model that will be superseded. 1. Overview of models 4.1.1 Direct sale to students Based on figures for the Council of Academic and Professional Publishers, spending by students on textbooks is still substantially higher than spending by university libraries (in 1999, 73.6% of the total was spent by students, 26.4% by libraries). However, book sales to students are static, despite increasing numbers of students. Second-hand book sales are important to students and e-books have the potential to close this particular market. The use of material supplied via coursepacks is growing and, consequently, of managed learning environments (MLEs). At the same time, the Internet should, in theory, be creating a more competitive marketplace where students can benefit - www.bookbrain.co.uk searches and compares the prices of titles from 14 UK booksellers, enabling students to seek out the cheapest means of acquiring the information. The Internet is also encouraging new ways of thinking about student book purchasing. Some predict the rise of rented textbooks, rather than outright purchase by students.
Questia is an example of an e-library which is targeting students directly, rather than through libraries. They do, however, provide bulk individual user licences to institutions on a discount basis. Questia is prepared to work with the DNER in this way.
Publishers are looking for ways to make payments easier for students, by introducing technical solutions such as the forthcoming Microsoft ‘cash wallet’ and charging through mobile telephone accounts.
4.1.2 Subscription model Questia is an example of an ‘all-you-can eat’ subscription model, sold in blocks of time to individuals, from two days to a whole year.
4.1.3 Pay-as-you-use: the photocopier analogy The ‘slice ‘n’ dice’ model is expected to develop significantly because of the opportunity to spread costs at a lower level. It also has the potential to be an efficient system in supporting individuals to buy only the material they need. For the student market, there is firm belief that students will be more willing to spread the costs of purchasing books and other information over the duration of the course, purchasing small quantities of information at the moment it is needed. Cavendish, the law publishers, has adopted a similar model for sales of their extensive e-book collection in the UK.
Ebrary users can browse, view and search its collection of books, journals, maps and other digital material without pre-payment or subscription fees. They pay only at the stage of copying or printing specific paragraphs, pages or chapters. Publishers determine the degree of access and cost associated with each of their titles. Ebrary is prepared to share revenues with its partners, including libraries. A micropayment method creates deposit accounts from which small purchases are deducted.
4.1.4 Free material Projects such as Gutenberg, the Oxford Text Archive and Bartleby all make available out-ofcopyright texts freely available.
4.2 Economics and libraries There is a general perception that e-book access is currently expensive, especially given the discounts that libraries are able to secure on printed equivalents. In maximising access and minimising cost for libraries, the choice of economic models for e-books in libraries include site licence, outright purchase and pay-per-view.
4.2.1 Short-loan collections
Academic libraries are devoting an ever-increasing slice of their purchasing budget to student texts and demand appears high for an electronic short-loan collection within libraries. The community will need to consider who is responsible for the purchase of etexts, the student, the institution or the library. Publishers are concerned about the impact on textbook sales of site licences. If the DNER wished to go down the road of site licences, the cost would be extremely high from the large publishers of textbooks. Other models are being mooted within the industry, such as lease plans, and these should be investigated for the DNER.
4.2.2 Outright purchase NetLibrary’s current model was developed in the early days of e-books, when a cautious approach to business models for e-books was being adopted. Shaped around the library market, the purchaser has a choice to acquire individual titles or subject-based collections. A user ‘borrows’ an e-book for a period defined by the host library, copying and pasting small portions of the content. NetLibrary sells e-books at the print list price, plus a choice of a one-off service charge of 50% or 9% p.a.
4.2.3 Site licence A site licence appears to be of interest to reference publishers and publishers of nontextbook material. Some publishers have expressed a keenness to make their material available online through a site licence arrangement, similar to the NESLI model. This has the advantage of providing access to a wide range of material, but potential drawbacks include the usual bundling problems, the cost of annual access to material rather than outright purchase. It will be impossible for JISC itself to take on contract negotiation with a whole host of different publishers.
4.2.4 Purchasing decisions The Purcel report (2000) on charging found that bundling is pushing institutions towards centralised budgeting and decision-making on e-resources. The structure of library budgets and the decision-making process with regard to books will be a major factor in making a success of developing an e-book collection. Where there is devolved budgeting, so acceptance of e-books by academics and tutors will be essential.
The actual usage of e-books can be readily measured. The Columbia University study (Summerwell, 1999) found a pattern of high use on a small number of e-titles. The ease of obtaining usage data may move e-book acquisition models from a just-in-case to one based on a mix of models applied as appropriate. The Pelican project (2001) is recommending the
need for usage data to be widely available across the sector and for such data to be used to make an informed choice between pre-paid subscription or usage-based retrospective payment.
4.3 Consortia Although NetLibrary have offered consortia deals in North America, they claim that some libraries have preferred to develop their own unique collections. Some publishers have been reluctant to enter into consortia deals involving aggregators. Based on evidence from the NESLI evaluation, the community may prefer in some instances to negotiate as part of a smaller group, for example, on a subject-based collection.
4.4 Other acquisition partnerships The DNER E-Books Working Group has been working closely with the British Library to consider where there are areas for joint negotiation on e-book products. There may be other cross-sectoral partnerships that are appropriate to the Group.
4.5 The DNER and economic models The NESLI evaluation has highlighted some of the issues that must be considered when developing economic models for e-books: • •
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The problem of a single deal trying to meet all needs i.e. a perceived lack of flexibility and tailoring to local need; The question of budgeting in institutions, particularly the split between a devolved or centralised approach; The need for flexibility in providing a choice between bundling and unbundling, the linking of print and electronic format.
Other specific concerns for e-books include: • •
The likely take-up of e-books by specific user segments within the community; The relationship between end-user purchase and library purchase;
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The role of the library, campus or online bookseller and institution in end-user purchasing;
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The specific type of material e.g. reference, textbook, monograph and the preferred economic model;
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Consideration of new business models e.g. leasing of textbooks for a specified period;
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The potential for resource sharing within a consortial deal.
Given the range of business models by which e-books are being made available, the DNER should be in a position to offer the community both choice and flexibility. The biggest obstacle may potentially be if libraries need to buy both print and electronic versions of a text. If the studies are indicative of end-user preferences (see section 5.2), this may well be the case, particularly in the short term.
5. Marketing strategy The NESLI evaluation highlighted some key areas for consideration by the Group: • •
The need to consult the community extensively; The need to prioritise in targeting specific content.
Both publishers and intermediaries have admitted that it is difficult to map out needs for the UK market. Many of the aggregators have built collections around the needs of the US market but accept the requirement to address the UK. The only analysis of actual e-book usage to date appears to be at Columbia University (Summerfield, 1999) and showed high use of a small number of titles, mostly by undergraduate and postgraduate students, with very low levels of participation by faculty.
E-books change the basic definition of a library collection: they are the last major area to go electronic "the last mile to the virtual library" as O’Leary puts it. It does not seem to be appropriate for the DNER to shape its collection around what is available but rather to map need and acquire content on this basis. This would indicate that market research be commissioned to build a collection around UK requirements. Given today’s business environment, companies are more likely to digitise content if they have assured sales.
The need and use of e-books will vary according to academic field but the devolved nature of book selection makes it vitally important that the Group work closely with the academic community. The DNER will need to engage the user community in reaching agreement on an e-book collection development strategy.
Short-term needs for e-books would seem to focus on reference works, short-loan collections and key subject areas such as law, business studies and medicine. The subject focus of some of the aggregated services (such as Questia in the humanities, Ebrary in STM)
would lend themselves to evaluation as part of a subject-based collection development strategy.
There is also keenness from publishers for some form of joint market research. Publishers would like to know whether to go for depth e.g. in key subject areas, or breadth across a range of subjects. Publishers are also eager to use technology to re-build the relationship with the end user, sensing that they have lost direct contact and so lack hard evidence on how their material is being acquired and used.
An e-book marketing strategy should determine the role of JISC, librarians, publishers and other stakeholders in promoting e-books. E-books seem to offer a unique opportunity for a range of stakeholders to be involved in moulding collections and in working on innovative projects. In law and in business studies, for example, we already have evidence that publishers, librarians and faculty would work together to define a core collection of e-books and to produce ideas for new types of electronic book products.
The Working Group has already opened channels of communication with the HE library community by establishing a network of e-book representatives. They are linked by a closed discussion list on Jiscmail, dner-ebook-reps. Means of communication with the FE sector will be developed in consultation with the DNER FE specialist and the Regional Support Centres (RSCs). Several articles on e-books and the Working Group are due to be published in the autumn and members of the Working Group are giving papers and making presentations at appropriate conferences. These are the first steps in a more detailed marketing plan to be produced for e-books.
5.1 Exploitation of e-books What value do e-books add to the reading experience? E-books must offer some unique advantage over printed equivalents. Several reports by consultants have predicted that the most successful e-book ventures are those that offer a relevant interactive experience. User studies seem to indicate that the technology may not be sufficiently mature (see section 5.2).
The potential advantages of e-books have been described many times: portability, instant access, searchability, annotation, linking, multimedia. So too, the disadvantages: the expense of technology, inadequate screen resolutions, availability of titles in the right format, long-term preservation of the material.
Certain types of book material are likely to be a success in electronic forms: dictionaries, encyclopaedias, technical manuals and other material where the reader needs relatively short chunks of material.
The E-Lib study by Armstrong and Lonsdale (1998) focused on the publishing of electronic scholarly monographs and textbooks. It addressed the issue of the e-book as a completely new genre or as an electronic version of the printed work. Armstrong and Lonsdale highlighted the fact that print favours long narratives and certain kinds of readings, whereas electronic media are pre-disposed towards chunks of content. They drew attention to the features of e-books, including hyperlinks, communication between author and reader, multimedia material etc, asking if these features would be valued by the user.
It will take time for teachers to work out how to integrate e-books into their teaching and how to exploit the medium’s capabilities. Students may also need time to work out how ebooks behave: most aggregators offer study tools alongside their e-book material, such as highlighting, note-taking and book-marking. Although there has not been any specific study on the use of these features, the students in the Cranfield study (see section 5.2.2) showed a strong preference for traditional methods of pen and paper, or entering notes straight into essays or project work online.
Students are IT-aware and so would be expected to be early adopters of e-books. Whereas publishers had previously aimed their marketing at teachers, so students are now being encouraged to visit textbook publisher Web sites directly. At the same time, publishers such as Pearson who have developed online learning products independently have not found it easy to make sales. Within a few years, we are likely to see the emergence of e-textbooks loaded onto a device for students, saving them the effort of carrying around heavy textbooks and course materials. Students will be able to print out or download individual chapters as needed. Content is also likely to be mixed and matched from different publishers to create customised content.
5.2 User studies There are a limited number of e-book user studies so far:
5.2.1 Columbia study The biggest survey of the use of online books took place at Columbia University between 1995 and 1999 (Summerfield, 1999). It found that where a user was reading a significant
portion of a book then (s)he was unwilling to read it on screen and instead printed or, more likely, read the printed version. Where the method of reading was skimming, rather than indepth, then an online version was more likely to be acceptable. The actual use of e-books was concentrated on heavy use of a small share of titles, similar to traditional library usage patterns. Students were by far the keenest users of e-books, with only a very small number of faculty members participating. Potential advantages for e-books were identified as: searching across a collection, browsing, obtaining a book quickly. Conclusions were that early e-books would need to look and behave like their printed equivalents.
5.2.2 Butterworth-Cranfield study Butterworth-Heinemann and Cranfield University have been co-operating in a publisher/library/faculty joint project since April 2001 to assess the use of an online textbook in marketing studies by MBA students. Initial findings are that students far preferred the convenience and ease of use of the printed text. The cohort rejected the idea of interacting online with the text until technology is more mature, but valued the e-book as a reference tool which could be searched and then printed as required.
5.2.3 Eboni project The Eboni project will identify and compare the variety of methods to determine the most effective way of representing information in electronic books, aiming to maximise usability and intake of information by users.
6. Impact of technology on authoring The DNER aims to be a leading innovator in digital information provision and stimulating development by digitisation and other projects. The challenge within e-books is to produce content that exploits the electronic environment but which also enhances the reading or study experience for the end-user. Such projects are likely to involve partnerships between various stakeholders, including authors, university presses, libraries and commercial publishers and distributors.
6.1 E-publishing projects A survey of university presses undertaken in 1999 in the United States showed that development costs, lack of demand and doubts about online reading were major barriers to undertaking e-publishing projects (Siler, 1999). Reference books were seen as the most likely targets for e-publishing, because of the ease of searching and updating content. The primary influences on e-publishing were seen as technological advance and availability,
rather than influences from the marketplace such as the size of the library budget or decreasing sales of monographs. Technology was seen as key to improving the presentation and distribution of content to users. Those who had not ventured into e-publishing gave lack of resources as a key reason. Clear market demand and more resources were the basic requirements that would encourage presses to enter into e-publishing.
Possibly the foremost project to promote co-operation between stakeholders and encourage new approaches to e-book publishing is the History E-book Project. The American Council of Learned Societies has a $3m grant from the Mellon Foundation to work with 7 university presses, including Oxford, Harvard and New York, on history e-books. The aim is to encourage university presses to digitise their works and for authors to consider new forms of electronic publishing. A mix of front-list and back-list titles are included. The project encourages presses to acquire in-house expertise, to develop technical standards and software, rather than just mainstream conversion. It also seeks to promote collaboration between learned societies, university presses, academics and libraries.
There are a number of e-book digitisation projects in the UK, not least the Oxford Text Archive. The Working Group now has the opportunity to extend the number of e-book publishing projects.
The JISC may consider working with partners involved in applying new technologies. The aggregators of reference works, Xrefer, have expressed interest in working with higher education to apply their cross-referencing and linking technology to older reference material.
7. Technical overview Publishers largely see the advantage in not being wedded to any particular technology at the current time. The major disadvantage is the need to create books in multiple formats for the current e-book marketplace.
7.1 Hand-held devices Many publishers and aggregators have said that they expect the hand-held device market to develop. Views expressed by publishers in the new annual survey of publishers centred on doubts about the existing technology and the need for the quality of the reading experience to improve. In sum, the market seems to indicate the need is for a multi-purpose device and improved screen technology.
Today, e-books can be read with a variety of devices, including handheld readers (mainly used for diaries, note-taking and email), dedicated e-book readers or, of course, by desktop access i.e. a pc or laptop. There is a great range of reading devices on the market. Some offer black and white only, others colour. Some can support images and technical material. There are varying screen sizes, different weights and memory/storage capacities. Prices vary enormously, according to the sophistication of the technology, from the mass-market Franklin eBookman (at $129) upwards. Different readers use different technical standards, something the Open E-book Project is trying to address. Most of the e-book readers and more generic hand-held devices only offer small selections of e-books in a proprietary format. Not all devices are suitable for education - some e-book readers and their formats do not support the inclusion of images or graphics, for instance. There are a number of published surveys available on e-book devices.
In the US, a growing number of libraries provide e-book readers to users.
7.2 Student devices Students currently face the problem of a spread of differing communication and study tools. Many industry experts express confidence that students will be carrying their entire course material within one portable device. These devices are already finding their way onto the market. GoReader is an e-book reading device focused on education and provides a colour high-resolution screen, highlighting, note-taking, book-marketing and other study aids.
7.3 E-book software Screen technology will have to display 200-300 pixels per inch before quality matches paper. Current e-book devices are only just over 100 pixels per inch. Both Adobe and Microsoft have been working to produce a more comfortable reading experience by producing software that smoothes out the jagged edges of characters and makes text appear sharper. The Adobe E-book Reader software features the CoolType font-tendering technology and two-page layout. Microsoft has an equivalent using ClearType technology.
8. Standards A number of surveys of e-book standards and formats are available in the public domain. While the OEB provides a specification for the content of e-books, EBX focuses on rights
management. Representatives of the Open eBook Forum and the Electronic Book Exchange Working Group have developed a plan to combine the efforts of both organisations.
8.1 Open E-book Standard The Open E-book Standard (OEB) defines a common markup syntax for e-books. The Association of American Publishers published the Open E-book Standards Project in December 2000. It recommended standards in numbering systems (based on DOI), and descriptive metadata (based on Onix). A third working group on digital rights management found that standards were not feasible but issued publisher requirements to hardware and software producers.
NetLibrary is the latest company to adopt the new OEB standard, giving them the ability to load OEB formatted books directly into the system with little intervention and avoiding expensive conversion fees.
8.2 EBX The Electronic Book Exchange System is supported by the ALA, Adobe, Versaware and others. It is a technical specification for the copyright protection and distribution of e-books.
8.3 Onix The Onix (Online Information Exchange) system is now widely adopted as a standard defining how to describe e-books for the book trade.
8.4 User authentication There is some awareness of Athens authentication in the industry, but there were comments about comparatively high costs, particularly from smaller publishers.
8.5 The DNER and e-book standards The Working Group has already established relationships with relevant bodies involved in the development of e-book standards. These include BIC (Book Industry communication), the Publishers’ Association, UKOLN and MEG (Metadata for Education Group).
A DNER e-book architecture is likely to support a variety of means of access to the material. Authentication and digital rights management systems should be able to distinguish at institutional and/or user level between the subscription, pay-per-view and other models likely to be adopted for e-books.
9. Preservation E-books will be a clear priority within the JISC Preservation Strategy. The Working Group will need to work closely with Neil Beagrie, Assistant Director of the DNER with responsibility for preservation issues in the DNER collections. Key to Neil’s strategy is the Digital Preservation Coalition, a group of ten organisations committed to the development of a UK digital preservation agenda.
10.Conclusions The DNER collections team is already well advanced in its negotiations on single-publisher ebook content, particularly in the area of reference material. On the broader issue of aggregated services, this report indicates the role of the Group in ensuring that the community is able to select from an e-book collection that meets the needs of UK higher and further education, with economic models that give individual institutions maximum flexibility.
11. Bibliography Ardito, Stephanie. Electronic books: to ‘e’ or not to ‘e’, that is the question. Searcher, 8 (4), April 2000. (Accessed 8th February 2001). Armstrong, C.J. & Lonsdale, R.E. The publising of electronic scholarly monographs and textbooks. 1998 Bennett, Scott. Just-in-time scholarly monographs. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 4 (1), 1998 http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-01/bennett.html Brown, Eryn. Who’s afraid of e-books? Fortune, 5 February 2001, p. 159 Ditlea, Steve. The real e-books. Technology Review, July-August 2000, pp. 70-78 Hardy, R.L. Oppenheim, C. & Rubbert, I. Pelican: one step closer to the solution of the pricing problem. (Paper not yet published) Hawkins, Donald T. Electronic books: a major publising revolution, Part 2: the marketplace. Online 24 (5), September/October 2000, pp 19-36 Jantz, Ronald. E-books and new library service models: an analysis of the impact of e-book technology on academic libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 20 (2), June 2001, pp. 104-113 Kahin, Brian & Varian, Hal R. eds. Internet publishing and beyond: the economics of digital information and intellectual property. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000 Lonsdale, R.E. & Armstrong, C.J. Electronic scholarly monographs: issues and challenges for the UK. Learned Publishing 13 (1), January 2000 pp. 15-24 Lynch, Clifford. The battle to define the future of the book in the digital world . First Monday, 6 (6), June 2001 (Accessed 9th June 2001). Lynch, Clifford. Electrifying the book. NetConnect, October 15 1999, pp3-6 Lynch, Clifford. Electrifying the book, part 2. NetConnect, January 2000, pp24-27 O’Leary, Mick E-book scenarios. Online, January 2001, pp. 62-64 O’Leary, Mick. The growth of online academic services. Online, 25 (4), July 2001 p. 72
Ormes, Sarah. An e-book primer: an issue paper from the Networked Services Policy Taskgroup. EARL – the Consortium for Library Networking. 2000. Porter, Michael E. Strategy and the Internet Harvard Business Review, 79 (3) pp. 62-78 Press, Larry. From p-books to e-books. Communications of the ACM, 43 (5), May 2000, pp. 17-21 Publishing 2001: attitudes to technological change. London: Bookseller Publications, 2001 Richardson, S.M. et al. Nesli interim evaluation: a study conducted by Loughborough University March-June 2000, Siler, Jennifer M. From Gutenberg to Gateway: electronic publishing at university presses. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 32 (1), pp.9-23 Summerfield, Mary, Mandel, Carol & Kantor, Paul. The Online Books Evaluation Project, final report. Columbia University, 1999
12. Appendix 1 List of people consulted Samantha Burridge, Business Development Director, Palgrave John Campbell, Electronic Development Manager, Oxford University Press Mike Dale, Vice President, NetLibrary Michael Dupler, Director, International Content & Business Manager, ebrary Steve Frazier, Managing Director, Amazon UK Ltd. Tim Goodfellow, Business Publisher, Butterworth-Heinemann James Gray, Chief Executive Officer, Coutts Information Services Ltd. Michael Holdsworth, Press Business Development Director, Cambridge University Press Carol Ann Hughes, Director, Collections Management, Questia Media Inc. Diane Kerr, Managing Director, Dawson Books Philip Kisray, Sales Director, Wiley Sonny Leong, Publishing Director, Cavendish Publishing Rufus Neal, Manager Digital Business Coordination, Cambridge University Press Jane Powell, Online Content Developer, Pearson Education Daryl Rayner, Marketing Director, xrefer.com Anthony Schuller, Deputy Publishing Director, Oxford University Press David Swarbick, Reference Online Director, Oxford University Press Graham Taylor, Director Designate, Publishers’ Association Linda Vendryes, Vice President Electronic Services, Coutts Information Services Ltd.. Anthony Watkinson, Consultant David Wynn, Director, Oxford University Press
Roger van Zwanenberg, Managing Director, Pluto Press