Utica College has chosen eBooks on EBSCOhost® from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) to grow its e-book collection. The college was looking to expand its electronic collection and although they looked at other e-book vendors, the site’s familiarity and positive experience with EBSCOhost databases as well the benefits of EBSCO’s Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) Program convinced Utica College that eBooks on EBSCOhost was the right fit.
Utica College has been an EBSCOhost customer for many years so when looking to enhance its eBook collection, Jan Malcheski, coordinator of electronic resources at Utica College, says librarians believed that an easy transition to something familiar was an important factor. “We use and like EBSCOhost databases for our most heavily used courses of study — a familiar platform for our students was a key factor in a very competitive field.”
Functionality is another important factor when choosing an e-book platform. Creating an e-book experience that is easy to use and efficient was a priority for EBSCO when developing the interface. A dedicated landing page with Advanced Search Options, Browsing Options and Search History are some of the features that make the search experience successful. Malcheski also credits the functionality of the e-book carousels as a feature that impressed them. “The eBooks on EBSCOhost default interface that scrolls by covers is very attractive and (we think, anecdotally) encourages browsing”.
To help libraries build a collection with guaranteed usage, EBSCO offers a Patron Driven Acquisition program. A title on the PDA list is triggered for purchase when a patron directly accesses the title, guaranteeing that only those titles with significant usage are purchased. According to Malcheski, this was instrumental in Utica College’s decision to purchase eBooks on EBSCOhost. “Offering abundant PDA titles while not incurring any costs until triggered by genuine use is a major ‘selling’ point in budgeting. PDA represents an ideal low-risk investment for use of library resources.”
eBooks on EBSCOhost® offers more than 350,000 e-books and audiobooks that are available for purchase on an individual basis as well as in Subject Sets, Featured Collections and Custom Collections with a growing number of purchase, lease and subscription options as well as patron driven options. eBooks on EBSCOhost represents a deep collection of e-book content that is accessible via a variety of devices. EBSCO proactively acquires new content in critical areas, based on the dynamic needs of libraries. Accessing the EBSCOhost platform for e-books and audiobooks saves librarians training time and adds a well-known search platform to the end user’s experience. Allowing end users to search for e-books and audiobooks along with their EBSCOhost database content improves the discoverability of library collections. Lowering the cost for libraries makes the decision to focus on or add to e-book and audiobook collections easier and more cost-effective.
