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To better determine how e-book acquisitions might affect future collection development decisions, a team of librarians from the University of Florida (UF) launched a project to assess cost and usage of e-booksT he Smathers Libraries has a primary mission to support the wide-ranging research and instructional activities at the University of Florida (UF), a large land-grant university with an annual enrollment of more than 49,000 and employing more than 3,000 faculty.1 The university also has more than one hundred undergraduate and two hundred graduate degree programs based in sixteen colleges that entail dozens of subject disciplines.2 With such a large scope of departments and degree programs to support across the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and medical-health related fields, the Smathers Libraries are challenged to meet the needs of this vast and diversified clientele. Moreover, the state is emphasizing distance-learning initiatives, with the libraries expected to develop and boost online resources to serve these new constituents.Within this landscape, a team of librarians from the Smathers Libraries (two from the acquisitions department, one from the Marston Science Library, and one from the Health Science Center Libraries) began a project to assess the number, cost, and use of e-books acquired for perpetual ownership by the libraries. The importance of determining the cost and usage of e-books purchased to support multiple subject disciplines is paramount as the Smathers Libraries face restrictive annual materials funding. A primary goal of the project was that the Libraries might apply the findings to improve the method of allocating e-book budgets.

Library Collections, Acquisitions and Technical Services 23 (1999) 421-431. doi:10.1016/S1464-9055(99)00088-3Received by publisher: 0000-01-01Harvest Date: 2016-01-04 12:23:36DOI: 10.1016/S1464-9055(99)00088-3Page Range: 421-43

insights-library-archivaland-information-sciences.

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