Assessing the Market Value of eBooks Acquired by Libraries: An Economic Analysis Commissioned by ALA

Assessing the Market Value of eBooks Acquired by Libraries: An Economic Analysis Commissioned by ALA

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2012/10/assessing-the-value-of-ebooks-an-economic-analysis-commissioned-by-ala.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LawLibrarianBlog+%28Law+Librarian+Blog%29

“ALA retained economists Stanley M. Besen and Sheila Nataraj Kirby to produce an economic analysis of the current environment in which libraries acquire eBooks. The report concludes that eBook pricing is determined by the library’s willingness to pay. That, in turn, is determined by the institutional buyer’s assessment of the perceived value of eBooks accorded by library users.

Besen and Kirby’s E-Books and Libraries: An Economic Perspective for ALA (September 2012) is highly recommended because we won’t see any similar expert economic analysis specific to Law eBooks from the perspective of member law library institutional buyers by AALL anytime soon, if ever.”

26 page PDF http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/oitp/publications/booksstudies/ebooks_libraries_economic_perspective.pdf

Table of Contents for E-Books and Libraries: An Economic Perspective

• Introduction
• The Differences between Print and Electronic Books
• The Costs of Publishing Print and E-books
• How E-books Are Distributed
• The Introduction of E-books and the Library Demand for Books
• The Effect of Value-added Features of E-books on Library Willingness to Pay
• The Effects of Usage Restrictions on a Library’s Willingness to Pay
• Budget Constrained Libraries
• The Effect of the Existence of Demand by Individuals Looking to the Future
• Appendix A: Derivation of a Library’s Willingness to Pay for a Book

Stephen