For a 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. Acquistions 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 appears to hamper browsing, a popular method, especially in public libraries, of selecting reading materials. Furthermore, book owners sometimes claim that e-books will not become popular because they can't be displayed on bookshelves for either pride or easy access. Though these problems are difficult, solutions are possible. Here are my ideas.