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ERIC Number: ED599111
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 229
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 978-1-3921-4778-8
ISSN: EISSN-
EISSN: N/A
What Counts as a Good Selection? E-Book Product Selection in the U.S. Academic Libraries
Zhang, Mei
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
In this dissertation I studied how academic librarians select e-book products, emphasizing the decision-making processes they used to make purchasing decisions. My dissertation contains two parts: (1) a meta analysis of selection models from both library and consumer research literature, and (2) interviews with e-book selection librarians. In the first part, I chose eight models: four for library books, two for library e-journals, and two for individual consumers to evaluate bundled products. I compared these in terms of principles and goals, criteria or processes they included, and transferability to e-book selection. My analysis reveals that the model strategy is moving towards semi-institutionalization, reflecting their creators' effort to be more rational actors in the selection decision-making process under pressure of being trusted stewards of public money. I then developed a conceptual model for e-book selection containing both process and variance model elements. In the second part, I reported results of interviews with 20 e-book selection librarians from 19 different libraries or library consortia, focusing on their selection processes. I used Nutt's decision-making process model as the framework to capture variations in my participants' processes, distinguishing five different process models depending on the stages activated in the decision processes. I then investigated the strategies my interviewees used to justify their decisions. Further, I distinguished two groups of decision-making behaviors described by my interviewees---the actions that fit with the institutional model, and the actions that fit with the rational actor model. I then discussed the potential factors that could help explain these two groups of actions. Specifically, the factors that drove interviewees' adoption of institutional actions include: non-competitive library e-book market, decision-makers' uncertainty about what counts as a good e-book product, and professionalism in library community; and the factor that drove interviewees' adoption of rational actions include decision-makers' encountering a new situation, their perceptions of their job responsibility to preserve scholarly communications, and their relationship with providers. I also examined the selection criteria discussed by my interviewees. I first provided an overview of these selection criteria, by dividing them into two categories: criteria used for purchasing new products, and criteria used for making retention decisions. I then closely examined four criteria that were not fully explained in earlier studies, including: content, perpetual access, copyright of embedded multimedia, and relationship with providers. I discussed the connections between my findings on selection criteria and the ideas learned from the two marketing models. Finally, I proposed a refined model by combining the findings from model analysis and interviews, which provides a more comprehensive view of librarians' decision-making processes of e-book products. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A