The CSIDS project: Building a shared eBook collection through collaborative purchase

Shirley Lam
The Open University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong SAR, China

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), together with four other self-financing institutions in Hong Kong, received a grant of HK$50M for a three-year library project from 2014 to 2016. The project is sponsored by the Education Bureau of the HKSAR government under the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS) of the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund (SPEF). The project title is ‘Collection sharing and information discovery system with enriched digital contents' (CSIDS). The project aims to: (1) build a system embedded with next-generation search and discovery tools to enable collection-sharing and information discovery for the learning community; and (2) enrich the current library collections by building a shared eBook collection through collaborative purchase by the five self-financing institutions.

This paper reports on the joint efforts in preparing and implementating the eBook collaborative purchase. To enhance the library collection and promote a better teaching and learning environment, the project aims to acquire a collection of 15,000 to 25,000 eBooks for shared access by the students and academic staff of the five institutions. The purchase has been confined to eBooks to facilitate resource-sharing and for project sustainability. The major tasks in the implementation include: deciding on collection development policies and strategies; liaising with vendors and price negotiation; and eBook selection and purchase. The paper reports the progress and achievements during the first eight months of 2014. It describes the practices that have been adopted to facilitate collaborative acquisition and collection-building and discusses the issue of continuity in eBook collaborative efforts within and beyond the CSIDS project.