Abstract
The rapidly growing market in e-books and the options for library acquisition of these materials lead to questions regarding access. Because MARC records increase use of e-books, and some vendors provide MARC records along with e-book purchases, many libraries use their library catalogues as a conduit to e-books. This article explores the challenges associated with these records. Consider ation is given to the quality of information provided by vendors, user expectations and experiences, and cataloguing workload in today's libraries. The authors seek to educate librarians about the issues associated with e-book MARC records, to empower them with questions to ask of vendors regarding this data, and to encourage them to weigh the costs and benefits associated with using this free information.
Highlights
Given the ever increasing options in e-book offerings, today’s librarians face the pressing question of how to provide access to this information
It is hoped that this overview offers an effective set of questions for librarians to pose to e-book and integrated library system (ILS) vendors when working with e-books and MARC
This article challenges the library community to consider whether some of the trade-offs associated with using free MARC records are worthwhile
Summary
Given the ever increasing options in e-book offerings, today’s librarians face the pressing question of how to provide access to this information. Many vendors, anticipating the library catalogue as a conduit to accessing e-books, offer MARC records as a part of e-book packages. The purchasing models for e-books present new challenges with regard to MARC data provision and record management. It is intended to provide a fairly comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding e-book access via MARC records in an integrated library system (ILS). It is hoped that this overview offers an effective set of questions for librarians to pose to e-book and ILS vendors when working with e-books and MARC. This article challenges the library community to consider whether some of the trade-offs associated with using free MARC records are worthwhile
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