There was certainly a buzz around the NEC's Library & Information Show (23- 24 April 2008). The topic of technology and e-books was one of the main concerns, writes Peter Williams

This interest was reflected in the presentation by Caren Milloy, e-books project manager, JISC collections on JISC’s national e-books observatory projects. According to Milloy in higher and further education interest in e-books extends beyond reference books to include text books. One of the problems is that the demand for e-books is hidden so publishers and aggregators have been slow to meet it, and as a result the development of coherent and workable business models has been equally slow. One key frustration for information professionals is knowing what e-books are actually out there. There is no central site providing a cohesive list.

JISC’s research shows that librarians in HE and FE are leading the demand for e-books, but that is a reflection of the demand they are hearing from students and to a lesser extent from teachers. The research tested the demand for e-books in business, engineering, medicine and media studies – a deliberately eclectic choice to see if, for instance medical students differs from media students in their use of e-books.

Looking around the LIS it is clear that with e-books the market is responding. For instance, Swets is due to launch the latest addition to its SwetsWise platform, SwetsWise ERM which helps information professionals keeps track of the licences they have – and that includes keeping tags on the right to browse e-books.

Information professionals’ utopia for e-books (according to JISC research) includes element such as concurrent usage, free archive, common standards, great integration with virtual learning environments (VLEs) and great metadata which encompasses not only texts but multimedia with open access. Simple eh? According to JISC e-books are a maturing market. That may be the case but from the discussions at LIS there is still some way to go in widespread knowledge, understand and adoption.