Metadata and providing access to e-books.

• Autores: Magdalini Vasileiou, Jennifer Rowle, Richard Hartley
• Localización: British journal of educational technology, ISSN 0007-1013, Vol. 44, Nº. 3, 2013, págs. 518-528
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In the very near future, students are likely to expect their universities to provide seamless access to e-books through online library catalogues and virtual learning environments. A paradigm change in terms of the format of books, and especially textbooks, which could have far-reaching impact, is on the horizon. Based on interviews with a number of key informants across several universities in the UK, this paper identifies a number of challenges associated with the creation of the essential metadata to support smooth access to e-books within universities. These challenges arise both from internal acquisition and cataloguing processes within libraries, and from the nature and quality of vendor's e-book metadata, and variously impact on the location of and access to e-books. Access is further hindered by authentication controls, digital rights controls and missing links. e-Book vendors and publishers, librarians and educational technologists need to work together to resolve these issues. In addition, there is scope for further research into the issues associated with providing access to e-books. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic e-Books are an important and growing category of digital resource that are becoming central to learning and education., Users expect easy and convenient location of and access to e-books., What this paper adds Summarises issues associated with the selection of e-books for inclusion in academic library Online Public Access Catalogues and learning platforms., Explores the challenges associated with the creation of metadata for e-books, which arise both from internal acquisition and cataloguing processes within libraries, and from the nature and quality of vendor's e-book metadata., Reports on the challenges that users experience in locating an e-book as a result of authentication controls, digital rights controls and missing links., Implications for practice and/or policy Provision of access to e-books for learning in universities is at an early stage, so it is important to listen to users and commit to continuous improvement., Anticipating considerable growth in the use of e-books in learning, metadata and access issues, issues which currently appear to be in the realm of academic librarians are likely to impact significantly on access to e-books through virtual learning environments., While, some current problems can be easily resolved, others are embedded in the approaches adopted by libraries and vendors, and collaboration towards paradigm change is necessary., Further research should be conducted into the issues associated with metadata, cataloguing processes,and, in general, providing access to e-books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]