Great article here http://bit.ly/b1AjE8 about the state of Florida deciding to sign on with Ingram/Coutts for their Academic purchasing of print and eBooks. This is interesting for many reasons, first off being that Blackwell (now Blackwell/YBP) was the primary source for many, many years. As the article says, it is a coup for Ingram, a very strange one. Now I’m not knocking Ingram, long standing family company, been around forever and great services they offer. However, the savings is minor compared to overall expenditures that they plan to spend on eBooks and print books, the neighborhood of $10m for spending and a savings of $50-$75k. What interests me is that Ziegler in the article it’s about building a cohesive collection.. (I call this collaborative collection development and so do others), but what was it that Ingram/Coutts offered up to sway them? Is it simply a we don’t want Blackwell now that they are owned by Baker & Taylor? Does this contract negate other eBook vendors for the libraries to purchase from, if so, that’s a major loss.
I’d like to know why they chose the more expensive and less feature rich platform of Myilibrary vs ebrary or EBL? I’ve worked with them all, including Ingram’s platform and netlibrary and almost all of the publishers platforms for their eBooks. So trust me when I say, Myilibrary is not the strongest contender in the ring and the real worry, did they even try out the platform or services and get patron feedback? This is huge in a library, however, my guess is that they made a decision based on what, I am not sure since others can also fit the collaborative collection development and building of a mass shared collection, so there must be more we don’t know.
Anyone have some thoughts?
eBookNoir 