By Ellen Fox
BCR is excited to announce a new consortial purchase opportunity with netLibrary, the
Boulder (Colorado)- based producer of World Wide Web-based electronic books.
Beginning in September, BCR member libraries will be able to buy into a shared
collection of electronic books, providing patron access to a wide range of materials at
dramatically reduced costs.
The netLibrary group purchase is different from other BCR group purchases.
Participating libraries will pay a share of the cost of the eBook collection according to
the institution's FTE. At the end of the sign-up period, BCR will use the fund to
purchase a shared collection of netLibrary eBooks. BCR hopes to accumulate enough
funds to purchase the entire netLibrary collection, plus multiple copies of especially
popular titles. At a minimum, BCR needs to cumulate $100,000 in order to buy a
good selection and get a reasonable discount. Our goal is $200,000 or more. This
collection would then be available to participating libraries in perpetuity.
The huge advantage to a library is having access to many more titles for much less
money than any single library could arrange. As of this writing, there are more than
8,500 books in the netLibrary collection, mostly university press publications. The
collection would cost an individual library close to $170,000 to purchase on its own.
Libraries can participate in the group purchase for $2,700 to $18,000 per institution,
depending on their FTE.
NetLibrary plans to add 10,000 titles a year to its collection. If the BCR group
purchase exceeds the minimum amount necessary to buy the entire collection, the
excess funds will be used to buy additional titles, as well as additional copies of
popular titles. The more money accumulated, the bigger the discount and the more
titles that can be purchased. Members who wish to purhcase their own individual
collection of netLibrary books will also be able to do so through BCR after the initial
group purchase has been completed.
Patrons will be able to do full-text searches of individual books or sets of books.
Libraries serving distance learners, the disabled or geographically diverse populations
will find netLibrary's services especially beneficial. NetLibrary's eBooks are very
helpful for patrons with specific technical or reference questions who want quick
information rather than a long, recreational read.
BCR's mission statement includes helping the library community to share information
resources and promote new technologies. The netLibrary group purchase will meet
both those goals. Please join the free trial by signing up at: www.bcr.org/~randd/
netlib.html or contact Ellen Fox at (800) 397-1552 or efox@bcr.org.
