E-books at the University of Hong Kong libraries: current status, issues and the future

Abstract

E-books are now nothing new to staff and students of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the oldest university in Hong Kong and one of the leading tertiary institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region. E-books from netLibrary and other Web-based e-books vendors found their presence in the library website at the beginning of this century and almost at the same time, library staff began engaging in the production of electronic versions of printed books. The University of Hong Kong Libraries (HKUL) has been aggressive in building up its e-book collection and as of end of June 2005, the number of e-books in the library collection amounted to more than 918,000, nearly all of which can be accessed online by registered borrowers. On the other hand, e-book production has become an operational priority of HKUL and it is now actively partnering with sister institutions in book digitization projects. This paper provides an up-to-date account of the provision of e-books at HKUL, including size and compoistion of the collection, usage as well as projects currently undeertaken in book digitization. In addition, the issues that HKUL has been facing in dealing with e-books, namely budgetary implications, copyright restrictions, consortia purchasing, access, bibliographic control, usage tracking and promotion, will be addressed to. Finally, the paper concludes with a projection of the future of e-books at HKUL.