Q. Why am I sometimes unable to access e-books when OneSearch says we should have access?

Two of the largest sources of e-books for the Baylor Libraries are Ebook Central and JSTOR. Our library system is complex, and we have multiple workflows for making e-books available, depending on how we acquire them. When we first moved to our current library system, we set up workflows to streamline the ordering of e-books from Ebook Central and JSTOR, both to improve efficiencies and eliminate duplicate titles. Shortly thereafter, some significant changes in the content to which we have access in Ebook Central changed when TexShare made a statewide agreement for Ebook Central content. Also, our library system provider introduced a service called auto-holdings for Ebook Central.

The implementation of auto-holdings can significantly increase efficiencies, and we currently use auto-holdings with major journal publishers -- Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley. Through this service, the system receives regular updates regarding the content (journal titles and years of coverage) to which we have access from these publishers with very little, if any, intervention on our part. 

We want to activate auto-holdings for Ebook Central to achieve these same efficiencies and -- especially -- reduce issues associated with researchers finding links to e-books to which we no longer have access or not finding e-books at all because we haven't manually activated access due to the significant number of titles involved.

Activating auto-holdings in Ebook Central will enable us to have all the records associated with Baylor's Ebook Central profile (no matter how we get them -- individual purchases, package purchases, TexShare access) discoverable in OneSearch. However, activating auto-holdings with Ebook Central involves careful examination and modification of the workflows we've established because the payment of invoices is closely integrated with these workflows.

Additionally, at about the same time auto-holdings for Ebook Central became available, personnel who worked most closely with e-book content retired. These positions have been and are continuing to be filled, but these new employees need to learn basic cataloging before they can advance to working with e-book workflows. The addition of the newly hired Catalog & Database Maintenance Librarian will also provide much needed support for implementing auto-holdings once she understands our current workflows. JSTOR does not yet have an auto-holdings option, but we are very close to having someone who will be able to resume the regular JSTOR update activities (removing records and adding new records).

We understand that it's frustrating when researchers encounter e-books that are no longer available, but we encourage everyone to use the Report an Issue with this Item option that appears with all OneSearch records to let us know about these problems. In some instances, an ID number is incorrect and when we change that ID number, access is restored; other times, an e-book not available in JSTOR is available in Ebook Central; in all cases, we want to fix the problem or remove the record from the system, to help future researchers.

We want everyone to know that we're fully aware of the issues we have with e-books and will work toward the best solution as soon as possible. Contact us at librarywebmaster@baylor.edu for any questions and thank you for your understanding.