ALA’s Digital Content Working Group (DCWG) has published EBook Business Models: A Scorecard for Public Libraries (http://www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Ebook_Scorecard.pdf ). The DCWG is using the Scorecard in a survey we ask you to complete. Your responses will help inform our understanding of what attributes are most essential to libraries, and whether these attributes vary by library size or other demographic characteristics.
Our goals are that you will have the needed information for developing and negotiating ebook licensing agreements locally, and that the Working Group will be better positioned to communicate and advocate with publishers, distributors, and other ebook players nationally. In addition, your input will help us develop revised versions of the Scorecard that reflect library needs and expectations.
Recommendation:
As you complete the survey, start with a clean slate as you evaluate. We want to know what you would like to see if your library was developing its own license for e-books. For example, how important is the variable: all content available to consumers is also available to libraries? If this variable ranks high, mark the five on the scale. Do you think that library users should physically come to the library to download e-books? If you vehemently disagree, select one on the scale.
The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. As you consider each of the 15 license terms we ask that you use the 1-5 (Likert) scale to indicate how important each license term is to your library.
Use the following as a guide:
1 means the license term is not important at all
2 means the license term is somewhat important
3 means the license term is important
4 means the license term is very important
5 means the license term is essential
Thank you for your time. We will publish the results of this survey when the results have been compiled.