(last updated 2017.3.9.a)

What to Say to Authors

You are welcome to send us a link to the vendor that provides your ebook specifically to libraries. We will consider your work(s) as we would any other ebook purchase for the Boreham Library.

If they want more details:

• If that vendor is Amazon, then we would have to subscribe to another service just to have possible access (if Amazon provided it). The public library already has this service, called Overdrive, so you may want to talk to them.
• If this vendor is not one of our regular ones, and it requires a subscription for libraries to use their services, that would be a cost on top of your book purchase.
• Provided this is available from one of our regular vendors, your work will be considered like any other ebook purchase. It should be appropriate for our collection and relevant to our programs.
• Please remember that fiction is usually donated, not purchased, for the Boreham Library, unless specifically requested for use by a program. What little ebook fiction we have was usually  included in large Academic collections as part of a subscription.

Then you forward the link to dennis.vanarsdale@uafs.edu and Dennis will check it out. If it's practical, Dennis forwards it to the relevant liaison librarian.

The following is the background for library staff:

General Considerations for Ebook Purchases other than our regular vendors

Remember that many new authors don't really understand about libraries (as opposed to individual purchase) and our special relationship with ebooks in the first place. They don't realize that:

• We cannot do Kindle ebooks. That is only possible for libraries using Overdrive as a vendor, for limited titles handled by Amazon, and we don't use Overdrive. Overdrive isn't that heavy on academic works; it's focused on public libraries. It is an additional subscription cost just to have access at all -- essentially, another database.
• A vendor has to be set up to work with libraries and control access. That means a check out system, a time limit, etc., along with standard epub or pdf formats.
• Without that kind of controlled access, the only way we could provide access is to have a file that everybody could download, which pretty much destroys the commercial purchasing of the work. Does the author want to provide this for free?
• We do not usually do promotions and therefore the author will have much better use of effort in going through a commercial ebook vendor. We do not function as a server just so authors have a place to send people.
• Ebook purchases are assessed just like all our collection and therefore, without a recognized book review source, we would have to be cautious about accepting anything not suited to our collection. 

Category One

Ebook authors fall into two categories first:

1. Non-local authors with no specific connection to this campus, Arkansas, or other local relevance. These are judged like any other author for purchase of ebooks, including whether or not this is the best format, the relevance to our collection, etc.
2. Local or locally relevant authors. These may get more leeway, but must still meet the selection needs of the library, and we still cannot limit access.

Category Two

The next category level is according to access to the ebooks:

1. Authors who expect us to host their ebooks ourselves. While we could do this for highly relevant works for our collection, it is not practical to offer this service to any/all authors; it is limited by the space on our III server. Also, this would only be for a download; there is no capability for reading online or controlling materials. Once it's loaded, anyone has access to download for free, so the commercial sale value is gone.
2. Authors who have ebooks available from commercial servers.
1. Amazon, as stated above, is not acceptable for this library.
2. A vendor we already use. We can consider purchase based on the usual selection criteria, as the cost would be only for the individual ebook.
3. A vendor that has a library-ready system for checkout, etc. Purchase depends on the usual criteria plus any additional cost of subscribing to this vendor's service, which is likely to be well above the price of the actual ebook itself and therefore be prohibitive.
4. A vendor that only sells to individuals. We cannot violate copyright to use this vendor.