England Universities reading ebrary

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA: ebrary, a provider of digital content products and technologies, has announced that it has been selected as one of the preferred suppliers of e-books to universities in England through July 2013.

The selection claims to enable universities in England to benefit from numerous advantages, like anytime/anywhere access; ebrary InfoTools networks every word with other online resources; multiple options for searching and navigating; personal bookshelves automatically store links to highlights, notes, and more, providing an archive of research while folders can be emailed to peers etc.

Also, it covers automatic citations when text is printed or copied and pasted into Word or any text applications. Citations include an automatic URL hyperlink back to the source. Additionally, there is highlighting and annotating; ability to transform text into a hyperlink to a URL of the end-user’s choice; text-to-speech and other keyboard shortcuts to assist end-users with special accessibility needs; counter-compliant usage statistics; and on-site or live, web-based training with a real person.

The LondonUniversities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), Midland Universities Academic Libraries (MUAL), the North West Academic Libraries (NoWAL), the North East and Yorkshire Academic Libraries (NEYAL) and the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) decided to tender jointly for their book, standing order, e-book and alternative media requirements. The resulting Joint Academic Consortia Agreement was awarded by SUPC on behalf of the participating consortia.

Under the terms of the contract, negotiated through the company’s authorized distributor 2info, members of the English Academic Library Consortia can choose to purchase individual e-books from ebrary’s growing catalog of over 123,400 multidisciplinary titles from over 350 leading publishers. Additionally, as the press release says, institutions may subscribe to Academic Complete, a growing, multidisciplinary collection with simultaneous, multi-user access to over 43,900 e-books and other authoritative titles, or select among 16 single subject subscription databases.

“During the tender process, we were looking for vendors that would enable member institutions to create instant online libraries in subject areas that matched their curriculum needs, with models that fit their budget requirements,” said Susan Wright, head of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC), a member of the English Academic Library Consortia.

Do you think e-books are growing in pace to e-libraries? What does the e-reader in you feel about this?