2019 Charleston Library Conference

An increasing number of libraries are making decisions about ebook purchasing and licensing based on criteria that go beyond the more prosaic and short-term concerns of shelf-space and budget limitations. Such “values-based” approaches also consider factors such as the publisher’s commitment to content accessibility/preservation and alignment with the Charlotte Principles for permanent acquisition of ebooks. They also take a broader perspective on the role libraries play in sustaining a healthy scholarly communication ecosystem, including a “bibliodiversity” of smaller/larger publishers and non-profit/for-profit publishers. In this session, a librarian and consortium director who are promoting values-based approaches will share their rationales, criteria, and experiences so far. Two publishers with their own ebook programs, MIT and University of Michigan Press, will describe how partnership with “values-based” libraries is both sustaining and shaping their products. The session will explore how to balance a “valued-based” acquisitions program with constant demands for efficiency of process and shrinking monograph budgets, how to “sell” the importance of such approaches to potential skeptical colleagues and administrators, and where these approaches may go in the future. Attendees can expect to learn about some current “values-based” ebook acquisitions programs, discuss the opportunities and challenges of taking such an approach, and explore the positive impacts of carefully directed acquisitions funds can have on the broader ecosystem.