Currently, the Digital Library uses ProQuest's eBook Central for ebook purchasing. The ebooks we buy on this platform, we own and provide perpetual access to our users.
However, ProQuest have just announced that they are going to phase out one-time perpetual purchases of ebooks and will replace this with a "subscription-based content access strategy". This means that instead of owning ebooks, libraries will have to subscribe to access ebook titles. The resources to which the library has access - for example, PressReader and Theatre and Drama Premium work like this; we don't own the content, we pay an annual subscription fee to access content and that works fine for all concerned.
Traditionally, books, and particularly since Covid, ebooks form the backbone of libraries' permanent collections; we provide perpetual access to titles. ProQuest's decision to switch to a subscription model will make it impossible for libraries to continue to develop their own ebook collections which will always be available to their users.
What does this mean for users of the Digital Library? In the short term, very little. We can purchase, own and have perpetual access to new titles until October 31st. After this date, according to ProQuest, we will still have perpetual access to books we have already purchased but will no longer be able to buy and own ebooks. Instead, we will have to pay to have time-limited access instead.
ProQuest have not released any information about how their subscription-based model will work, so the Digital Library will continue to purchase ebooks until the cut-off date. ProQuest’s main competitor (EBSCO) in the ebook market has reaffirmed its commitment to providing perpetual access to purchased titles and we will look at switching to them in the future. We don’t consider it ideal to have a digital collection split over two platforms, but neither can we continue to use ProQuest to create a high-quality collection of ebooks relevant to teachers and learners in the FET sector.
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