CELPh's Cooperative eBook Development Project: Implications for Future Directions

Abstract

The Consortium of Engineering Libraries-Philippines, established in 2014, primarily aims to provide better access to online resources through shared subscriptions/acquisitions. As such, it has initiated a collaborative e-book development project among its member libraries in 2016. In the last three years, it has jointly acquired a total of 1417 e-book titles, which were bought in 3 tranches. The decision whether to continue or end the project will depend largely on its success. To measure success, this study looked into the utilization rate, the cost-efficiency of the acquired e-books, and the members’ insights with regard the project’s strengths and weaknesses. Descriptive quantitative method was employed through the analysis of usage data gathered from publisher and the conduct of interviews among selected head librarians of member libraries. The cost-per-use was determined to ascertain cost efficiency. Utilization rate, on the other hand, was ascertained using Applegate’s formula, particularly the percentage of items used/accessed, the circulation ratio of all titles, and the circulation ratio of downloaded titles.