By Ellen Fox
BCR teamed with netLibrary to provide affordable
access to electronic books for member libraries. The group purchase BCR set up
ultimately aggregated almost $150,000 to purchase 2,083 of netLibrary's electronic
books. Each library paid according to its institutional FTE, with the purchase price
ranging from $2,700 to $18,000. Libraries from nine states participated. In the next few
weeks, those libraries will be receiving training on how to make the best use of the
netLibrary service.
BCR has also developed cataloging packages to make it easier for member libraries to
add the MARC records for the electronic books in the group purchase to their OPACs.
The options range from providing a library with a Cataloging Micro Enhancer file
containing the MARC records for the books (allowing libraries to do their own Set
Holdings and Exporting) to a turn-key solution in which the library need only download
the completed records into its local system. More details can be found at
www.bcr.org/~randd/netlibmarc.html.
Due to requests from several member libraries, BCR will extend the period in which
libraries can sign up for the group purchase for at least a few more weeks. Funds
collected from the newly subscribing libraries will be used to buy multiple copies of the
books and possibly even some new titles. The current title list can be found at
www.bcr.org/~randd/nllist.html. It is available in both HTML and Excel formats.
BCR is extremely pleased with the success of the netLibrary group purchase. We plan to
offer more such group purchases in the months to come. For more information, contact
Ellen Fox at 303-751-6277 or by e-mail at efox@bcr.org.
