When users influence ebook purchases
© 2024 EPFL
Since 2021, the EPFL Library has been purchasing ebooks via an Evidence-Based Acquisition (EBA) model, which is essentially based on ebook usage.
Traditional ebook acquisition model consists in the purchasing entire collections or single titles, based on librarian’s choice or by patron’s acquisition proposals.
Testing before purchasing
Within an EBA model, the publisher provides users with access to a very wide range of ebooks for a delimited period of time (typically 1 year).
At the end of this period, librarians select the ebooks to be purchased to guarantee perpetual access. This selection is made according to two principles:
- usage statistics for the past year
- EPFL Library’s current documentary policy
The EPFL Library has subscribed to 6 EBAs with different publishers, whose extensive ebook offers can be discovered through the BEAST catalog:
- American Chemical Society
- Cambridge University Press
- De Gruyter
- MIT Press
- Taylor & Francis
- Wiley
For any further questions you may have about the EBA model, do not hesitate to contact the EPFL Library collection service at [email protected].
You may also suggest document purchases directly via an online form at https://go.epfl.ch/proposals.