2013 Charleston Conference

The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and Oxford University Press (OUP) are continuing their pilot to create a financially sustainable model for consortial acquisition e-books coupled with needed shared print copies in cooperation wit YBP Library Services (YBP). The project expands acquisitions of e-books in tandem with reductions in print, so as to move both the consortium and the university presses to a decidedly electronic environment for books that will enhance support for instruction and research across the disciplinary spectrum within an environment that is acceptable to users. This presentation will report on the challenges and lessons learned in Year 1, librarian and patron reactions to this format shift, and the resulting philosophical and practical evolutions in TRLN’s approaches to monographic acquisitions generally and understandings of what constitutes cooperative success specifically. Presenters also will discuss how this knowledge has changed understandings about vending and acquiring e-books and their relationship to print and what have been the implications of these experiences for making changes in Year 2 and envisioning how the pilot would become a permanent venture.