Taming of the Beast: Embrace the New Challenges created by E-Book Collection Development and Management

The trend of “print to e migration” in libraries not only has no sign of slowing down, but also has spread from journals to monographs. How to effectively acquire, organize, manage, and provide access to this increasingly important e-book collection of the library has been and will continue to be critical for libraries worldwide. It also requires libraries to overhaul and redesign their existing business processes and workflows, reassess the job profiles and knowledge of existing serials staff to make sure that they can meet the skills required for managing and servicing their e-book collections to library users. During 2006 to 2008, the libraries of the eight government funded higher education in Hong Kong were awarded a special grant from their parent intuitions and the Hong Kong Government to jointly acquire over 15,000 titles of English monographs in electronic format. As a member library of this special project, Lingnan University Library was able to enhance our e-book collection in a very short period of time. However, it also demanded us to act quickly in redesigning our business processes at the serials department to cater for this sudden surge of electronic books. In this paper, we will discuss the e-book management which is the “Beast” and the challenges of e-book acquisitions and management that we have to overcome. Then, we will also share with how Lingnan University Library tames the beast by introducing a series of “changes” such as organizational restructuring and automation to embrace the new challenges that generated by e-books acquisition and management.