University presses' e‐book dissemination strategies for academic library customers: An exploratory study

Abstract

This work‐in‐progress paper examines university presses' e‐book dissemination strategies by focusing on how presses choose certain ways to distribute their e‐books to academic library customers, and the factors supporting their decisions. The study conducted five one‐on‐one interviews with employees from different university presses in the U.S. The preliminary findings reveal that although all participating university presses provided their e‐books to four main vendors, these presses adopted different strategies to distribute their e‐books to different vendors. Further, this study listed the factors affecting university presses' decision on their e‐book dissemination strategies, including increasing exposure of their e‐books, concerns about adding new vendors, and the vendors' imposition of DRM on e‐books. Then this study, by linking the findings to the framework of cultural commodity, argues that the university presses' dissemination strategies demonstrate their effort to reduce the fragility of their e‐books as a cultural commodity.