OUP pushes e-book agenda

E-books are back on the library agenda driven by academic users fed on a diet of e-journals, according to publishers and consortia.

“Our customers expect electronic content,” said Hazel Woodward, a librarian for Cranfield University and chair of the JISC e-book working group. Journal subscription and access within institutions is almost entirely electronic.

Oxford University Press (OUP) will launch Digital Reference Shelf, an online collection of history, scientific, economics and arts reference books at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Susanna Lob, OUP online products marketing director, said libraries were calling for general reference online. “Libraries have seen an increase in circulation of existing collections” from e-book adoption.

Woodward said e-books have matured. Lob agreed that publishers have realised the potential. “E-books failed because they replicated the print model online. Now we have multi-user licenses, cross linking and bundle deals.”