For a set yearly fee, circulation staff can download for one time use some number of e-texts. At any time, acquisitions librarians could purchase high circulating e-texts for permanent ownership. Acquisitions librarians set up accounts with online e-book vendors that instruct the circulation staff what to do. When the account is set up, acquisitions librarians identify authors the vendor should automatically send when e-books by that author are released. Acquisitions librarians can also read about upcoming and available e-books.
Librarians can purchase and download any e-books now.
Now when patrons ask for titles not owned by the library, the circulation staff can look up the title in the vendor's web site and follow the directions. This article was written by Chris Rippel, Central Kansas Library System, Great Bend, Kansas. This site contains extensive information on ebooks and libraries.