Re: NetLibrary novice

[Virginia Scheschy <scheschy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Some additional comments on NetLibrary books:

Q. Apart from the Innopac interface, what are the main advantages of
contracting with NetLibrary given that the service is (freely?)
available on the Web and users can register themselves and go ahead and
read or download the e-books?  How expensive is it?

A. The only books available from NetLibrary for free are titles in the
public domain (e.g., from Project Gutenberg).  For all others you pay the
cost of the print plus an access fee.  Perpetual access is 50% of what you
pay for the book; you can pay for access annually based on a sliding scale
which starts at 15% and goes down 3% each year.

Q. Shouldn't Innopac access to the book be controlled by patron's number
(same as with Electronic reserves) rather than Library IP address,
so the patron can use the service from anywhere?

A. Our access is via IP address, and we use Innovative's WAM for access
from off campus.  It is still necessary for each user to set up a user
name and password with NetLibrary for circulation purposes.

Q. Why should the patron need to "check out" the e-book - why should they
need "exclusive" access to it for a period of time?  Can't e-books be used
concurrently by severals users if required?  Is the booked "checked
in" again automatically after the specified period?

A. The one copy/one user model replicates the print world.  Apparently
NetLibrary had to do this to convince some publishers to participate.  The
check-out period is whatever the library designates (4 hours, a day, a
week, etc.)  The user has the option to check something back in early, but
if they don't do so, the title is unavailable until the checkout period
expires.  

Q. Why is there a separate Preview option to access the entire content of
the e-book for a maximum of 20 minutes?  (I can perhaps see why if only
one user at a time can have full access as above.)

A. You can actually continue in preview mode for longer than that as long
as you are actively scrolling through the book.

Virginia


On Fri, 27 Oct 2000, Turner, Anne wrote:

> Don't know much about the NetLibrary service yet - read the information on CSDirect and am left wondering:
> 
> 1)  Apart from the Innopac interface, what are the main advantages of contracting with NetLibrary given that the service is (freely?)
> available on the Web and users can register themselves and go ahead and read or download the e-books?  How expensive is it?
> 
> 2)  Shouldn't Innopac access to the book be controlled by patron's number (same as with Electronic reserves) rather than Library IP address,
> so the patron can use the service from anywhere?
> 
> 3)  Why should the patron need to "check out" the e-book - why should they need "exclusive" access to it for a period of time?  Can't
> e-books be used concurrently by severals users if required?  Is the booked "checked in" again automatically after the specified period?
> 
> 4)  Why is there a separate Preview option to access the entire content of the e-book for a maximum of 20 minutes?  (I can perhaps see why
> if only one user at a time can have full access as above.)
> 
>   Thanks for any help,
> 
>     Anne Turner
>     Sheffield Hallam University, UK
>     a.turner@xxxxxxxxxx
> 
>     
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
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> Private replies:  "Turner, Anne" <A.Turner@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Public replies:   INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx
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> 

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