- simply give it away on a thumb drive or put it on a server
- distribute free through iBooks Store--minimal IP agreement with Apple
- charge for iBook on Store--more complex and more checks and balances about who owns copyright
Apple is touting the fact that you can update an iBook at any time in order to keep it current and accurate. Big discussion about how that affects references. Since there is no "edition" or versioning, fact checking for editors can become a nightmare. While the same is true when citing a website, most researchers would expect information in a "book" to remain constant or be updated with successive editions. The Apple rep just did not get it on that issue. The other huge drawback is the fact that the application is only available on the iPad.
Another selling point is that libraries could use the iBooks store to sell books created from their collections. Turn this into a money-making venture. While this bears watching, many of the attendees thought that this app is not a good fit for libraries at this time.
Libraries as Publishers: Current and Best Practices
Representives from the Scholar Commons at the University of South Florida and the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia talked about the publishing services that they offer to their community.
Scholar Commons offers a suite of services that includes repository services, eScholarship services, OA publishing services, geoportal & data repository. They started by taking over a journal that was failing at the request from a faculty member. Things quickly grew from there. They use the bepress platform for publishing and help with creating the journal site and training editors. They did a cost study and found that the cost per article for their OA journals is about 10% of the cost of a subscription journal. They currently host six journals and are in discussions with a couple more.
Before taking on a new journal project, they look at three things:
- aim aligns with library
- peer reviewed
- health and active editorial profile
- platform software hosting: OJS, WordPress (most common), blogs and wikis
- consultation: digitization of back issues; copyright, licensing, author agreements; open access and other business models
- ISSN and domain acquisition
- print on demand
- design, content migration
- workshops on journal best practices