BCR Announces Group
Purchase of Books24x7
By Ellen Fox
BCR is organizing a group purchase for public libraries and academic libraries (including K-12) of Books24x7. Books24x7 provides access to full-text electronic versions of top technical books and journals, fully searchable and consistently presented. Publishers include MIT Press, O'Reilly, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Que, Sams, Sybex and Wiley. Rather than purchasing the electronic-books in perpetuity (like the netLibrary collection), Books24x7 is an annual subscription service. Books can be read using Internet Explorer 4 or better and Netscape 4 or better.
Pricing for public libraries uses a simultaneous user model. Because the cost of one simultaneous user is relatively high, BCR is aggregating public library purchasing power to buy a pool of shared simultaneous users. The total number of simultaneous users will be determined when we have finished enrolling libraries. Pricing is graduated based on population served. See www.bcr.org/~randd/books24x7/books24x7menu.html for more information.
Pricing for academic libraries is by FTE. The ceiling price per FTE is $1, but that amount will be reduced depending on how many libraries subscribe and the FTEs subsequently aggregated. The price could go as low as $.64 per FTE. BCR will base the price on the total number of FTEs enrolled as of December 15, so please enroll early. See the above BCR Web site for more information.
Books24x7 is also producing free MARC records for its electronic book titles. The MARC records are available via FTP and are updated weekly. You can download the entire batch or just the most recent additions. Adding the MARC records to your OPAC makes the books more valuable and usable for your patrons.
For questions about the Books24x7 group purchase, please contact Ellen Fox at (303) 751-6277 or by e-mail at efox@bcr.org.
BCR Publications | Table of Contents
Comments to:
shoffhin@bcr.org
February 27, 2008
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