The E-books for FE Project provides a core collection of e-books to all UK FE institutions, initially for five years, with the option to acquire additional e-book titles at discounted prices through the e-select framework agreement. However, this is unlikely to provide all the e-books required for the wide range of FE courses available. JISC Collections with funding from JISC commissioned John Cox associates to explore and evaluate a range of business models that will enable students in FE to have access to the e-books needed for their studies.
Migrating to e in UK Further Education
Why aren’t all the textbooks I need available electronically?
Unlike monographs and journals, a ”student pay” model is the established model for textbook sales in print form. The consensus amongst the publishers interviewed in the study on the Management and Economic Impact of eTextbook Business Models is that between 70 and 90% of overall revenue comes from students. Publishers are cautious about providing course texts online as there is a lack of evidence about demand and concerns over impacts on print sales
JISC Collections, e-book publishers, librarians and aggregators are unsure about what are the most realistic and sustainable pricing and licensing models for providing students with online access to course texts.
JISC Collections has commissioned two consultancies to address these issues to drive the e-textbooks debate and to inform future strategies for everyone involved in the provision of textbooks.