Measuring the value of e-books in academic libraries

How should academic libraries determine the value of e-books?  A Springer White Paper (Scholarly eBooks: Understanding the Return on Investment for Libraries) explores why libraries should measure value - and how they should go about it.RoI is a complex issue and different institutions are using a range of measures.  Factors that may be considered include:

• Effect on research output
• Time saved by library staff and researchers
• Space saving
• Cost saved on content acquisition
• Usage figures per e-book (vs usage figures per print copy)
• Use of e-resources can lead to increased number of citations - which can influence grant applications

• Stay current with relevant RoI research - and be ready to refer to it in discussions with University administrators
• Partnering with publishers to promote e-resources encourages efficient searching and usage
• Enhanced discoverability of e-books encourages multi-disciplinary work
• Usage statistics vary between publishers
• Additionally, e-book users tend to read chapters not whole books, but most usage statistics do not reflect this
• Libraries will continue to have to prove value for money - librarians need to focus on having comprehensive RoI data available.
• Learn from the lessons of e-journals - consensus about usage figures will emerge, just as they did for e-journals
• There is much work to be done in collaboration with publishers - including developing usage measures and deepening understanding of user needs