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Academic libraries continue to invest in eBooks to ensure access to content in various formats. This paper aims to examine eBook acquisition models, including patron-driven acquisitions, one-time purchases, focused collection subscriptions or large-scale subscriptions, to better understand how users engage with this content based on usage data.

Usage data provide insights into eBook acquisition and how access models influence use. This study defines the acquisition model for each eBook purchase. Data were examined to determine usage by acquisition model and cost-per-use.

This paper finds that for a large suburban community college, a large-scale subscription model has the lowest cost-per-use and serves the largest portion of students. Focused collection subscriptions supported small, specialized programs in the Allied Health, Emergency Services, and Nursing fields.

This paper examines how eBooks are acquired to determine which model best serves an academic library community, specifically a community college library, which is currently underrepresented in the literature.

Recognizing the magnitude of disruption the pandemic caused for academic libraries, this study considers past collection development approaches considering a new post-pandemic landscape. It questions tried-and-true best practices held at our institution for decades with the purpose of seeking clarity and a way forward. Through this collection development self-study, our goal is to identify a new collecting model that meets our students “just-in-time” information needs while also maintaining fiscal responsibility. Our hope is that other institutions of similar size and purpose can apply these new models in their collections.

This study utilizes collection analysis data obtained through the Bowker Book Analysis System (BBAS) to compare our existing collection against Resources for College Libraries (RCL) in addition to EZProxy Analytics and existing circulation data. The qualitative data helped inform conversations among the librarians with collection development responsibilities and sparked conversations and decisions on how to best move forward to rightsize a print collection.

Informed by data from the Bowker Book Analysis System, this article discusses a new approach to collection development which includes a focus on leasing books, rethinking when to permanently add a print title to our physical collection, and the expanded use of demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) to offer students the largest possible access to research.

While the library and information science literature include discussions of collection analysis, the originality of this proposed article is the focus on a collection analysis post-pandemic in a community college environment with new approaches to building a collection with limited financial resources.

The learning objectives aim to provide an understanding of the changing nature of consumer payments and the impact upon both businesses and consumers. This can be achieved by examining the case through the lens of stakeholder theory, which posits that businesses are “responsible … to ‘those groups and individuals who can affect or be affected by their actions.’” Collectively, those groups and individuals are known as stakeholders and they commonly include “customers, employees, suppliers, communities and financiers.” In addition to creating value for the owners, businesses should also consider how they can create value for each of their other stakeholders (Freeman et al., 2010, p. 9). In addition, consistent with the theory of management control systems (Chenhall, 2003), the automatic processing of cashless transactions enables businesses to more efficiently record their earnings, commission payments (if applicable) and monitor cash collections. As all data are captured in an electronic format, they can easily understand their sales and profitability through user-friendly and visually appealing dashboards. This, in turn, enables them to obtain a more accurate and timely view of their business and they can appropriately adjust their operations and strategy as a result of this information. Finally, cashless payments enable more accurate and efficient reporting of information to taxing authorities, which decreases the possibility that the affected parties would underreport income and underpay taxes. This is similarly consistent with the theory of management control systems (Chenhall, 2003) because the improved systems of financial reporting assure compliance with tax laws and regulations.

This case was developed using both primary and secondary data sources. The authors interviewed the participants in London and the secondary data collection used relevant sources from appropriate literature and the popular press.

In London, consumer transactions were as plentiful as the eight million people who lived there. While cash was considered “king” in retail, cash payments dropped by 15% across the UK in 2017, and debit and credit cards became the predominant payment method (Kollewe, 2018). Cash represented only 40% of customer payments and was expected to drop to 21% by 2026 (Lyons et al., 2018). This was likely driven by contactless payments whereby consumers preferred the speed and ease of being able to “tap and go.” As businesses were charged fees to accept credit card payments, many expected that small businesses would insist on cash for small transactions. Instead, some banished cash completely. Insights from two London businesses helped explain why some were dropping cash and completely embracing cards.

This case can be used in a variety of undergraduate level courses to discuss trends in customer payment methods and the decisions of some businesses to completely abandon cash. Some example courses and suggested supporting materials include the following: • Consumer behavior • Entrepreneurial finance • Survey of accounting • Introduction to financial accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collection development practices regarding e-books among librarians who manage French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (Romance) materials. The authors aim to describe factors that influence acquisition of e-books for Romance language collections to confirm librarians’ perception that humanities researchers prefer print and library administrators’ attitudes toward e-books.

This study collected data using a mixed-method approach of a survey and focus groups.

This study confirms that user preference is the primary consideration of Romance librarians in selecting e-books. Contrary to librarians’ perceptions, this study found that humanities faculty and students are not averse to using e-books for specific purposes such as searching, targeted reading and course materials. While restrictions on lending e-books are a concern, Romance librarians are focused primarily on serving the needs of their core constituencies.

The practice of adding call numbers to individual e-books varies among institutions. Individual e-book titles in large packages do not necessarily get added to the catalog, thus making it very difficult to compare e-book collections between institutions.

This study endeavors to unify the anecdotal narratives and factors that influence the acquisition of e-books by Romance librarians.