Etextbooks
What are etextbooks?
Whilst there is no universal definition of a textbook, a good working definition is provided by JISC: “key titles set by academic staff that form the basis of lectures, seminar reading, exam revision and essays,” (JISC, 2021). There is a long tradition particularly within undergraduate studies of recommending seminal, “core” texts to students to inform understanding of core topics.
There is no universal definition of etextbooks in terms of the content they provide. However, broadly speaking etextbooks can be distinguished between “traditional” library ebook collections in their delivery and access model.
Ebooks and etextbooks -distinction
Libraries have been providing ebooks to students for well over two decades and they continue to form a growing part of library book collections. Traditionally ebooks were provided under the same core principles of print library collections:
- Purchase in perpetuity
- Universality of access
In the case of universality of access, this did not mean that 1:1 provision (i.e. everyone having a copy of an ebook) but rather that all users had the opportunity to access the content.
Ebooks were provided primarily via content aggregators such as ProQuest and EBSCO primarily via the following access models:
- Single user access - only one user could access a book at once.
- Multi-user access - several users could access a book at once
- Unlimited access - no restriction on the number of users who could access the book simultaneously.
Etextbooks whilst not defined strictly in terms of content (i.e. they may not just include “traditional” ebooks) are distinct in that they are fundamentally designed to be provided on a restricted access model. Typically this will be on the basis of annual subscription rather than in-perpetuity access.
Within this model etextbooks may be delivered on a variety of models:
- 1:1 delivery - direct to individual cohorts of students often via restricted VLE access.
- Multi-user access - where annual subscription costs are based on anticipated likely use (based on cohort numbers) and usage is monitored.
- Non-linear access - a credit based system where there a number of “loans” (ebook accesses) are purchased over a time period.
Etextbooks are provided by both individual publishers and specialist etextbook aggregators.
The major cross publisher E-textbook providers in the UK are:
In addition, major academic publishers such as Elsevier, Sage, Taylor & Francis make etextbooks available on a variety of licensing models direct from their publisher platforms.