RE: Request for information on book purchasing

["Tilly R (UB)" <R.Tilly@UB.unimaas.nl>]

Dear Joe,

I have been following your opinions for some time and find them 
very interesting especially on the book ordering issue.

First of all in answer to your request on monographic orders we 
at the university library do not distinguish in the ordering of 
monographs. We have two main book suppliers domestic and foreign. 
In my view we have a contract with the bookseller and he has to 
supply as offered. We don't think its sound business to be 
preselecting the orders (you might be tempted to take the best 
bits out), in some cases grey literature is the exception.

We at the university have a policy of supporting the local 
bookseller so they can provide the best service for our 
university students and staff.

What I'm more interested in and that's a fundamental question how 
are we (librarians) going to order e-books from: Bookseller, 
Wholesaler, or straight from the Publisher. I'm asking this with 
the Big Deal (journals) in mind, with its advantages and 
disadvantages.  And the fact that most publishers are presenting 
impractical pricing models main issues in the discussions are: 
packages, simultaneous users and site (access) definitions.

If you have any views or opinions on this I would appreciate these.

Regards,
Roel Tilly
University of Maastricht
Mail Address:
PO Box  616, 6200 MD Maastricht

Visiting Address:
Grote Looierstraat 17, 6211 JH Maastricht
T (043) 388 5091 | F (043) 3884888

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph J. Esposito
Sent: maandag 18 augustus 2008 23:52
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Request for information on book purchasing

Perhaps members of this list can assist me in answering some 
questions about the purchase of books by academic libraries.

By "books" I mean something specific:  printed books published by 
university presses.  No ebooks, no digital aggregations, nothing 
from publishers outside the university press world.

The question is, How are libraries purchasing these books?  One 
press director told me that all the purchases go through library 
wholesalers (e.g., Baker & Taylow).  I understand that some 
libraries are purchasing such books from Amazon, but I have not 
yet had a librarian confirm this.

Do you have any figures on this?  Of all the U. press books you 
purchase, what percentage comes from wholesalers, what percentage 
directly from the publishers, how many from Amazon or other 
(principally) retail vendors, etc.?  A related question is, Do 
you get significantly different figures if you count by units 
(that is, copies of books) instead of dollars (the cost)?

Thank you for your help with this.

Joe Esposito